FOR 57 years, two old shipmates didn't know if each other had survived some of the worst sea battles of the Second World War.

Young navy recruits John Connor and Jim Alderson had been friends for just a few months when they went their separate ways in 1943.

But the close bond the two had forged half way across the world brought them back together last week in John's home.

Although they spent the years since the war hundreds of miles apart - John kept his roots in Willington, while Jim settled in Middlesex - thoughts of each other were never far from their minds.

Then, by chance, former engineer Jim saw his old pal's name and address on a Teletext appeal for former comrades and didn't hesitate to get in touch.

When he knocked on John's door in Hall Lane, Willington, the years fell away. John, now a 79-year-old retired council worker, and 81-year-old Jim were the same two fun-loving sailors who shared adventures at sea and on shore.

John and Jim, born in South Moor had both sailed on the HMS Guardian before they met, by chance, in a dockland camp in Columbo, Ceylon.

For the next ten months they were inseparable. Their shore duties included escorting prisoners from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to Secundrabad, in India.

They returned home on the HMS Carthage before eventually parting in Devonport.

Jim said: "We were two Northern lads who looked after each other. But, even though we were in the same escort groups after that, we never met.

"I always wondered what happened to John. Now I know - he is just the same bright young man he always was.