"As the train rattled on through the night, my worst fears were confirmed when from Pyle, I could see that the whole of Swansea seemed to be on fire. It was the third night of the blitz, 21 February 1941 and I was trying to get home.

I was worried about my wife and in-laws at Rhondda Street, Mount Pleasant. We had recently got married on 4 January and I was by now at RAF Cardington, Bedfordshire, awaiting embarkation, when I heard on the BBC of the attack on Swansea.

The announcements were usually vague on locations, but this time they mentioned Swansea, so I knew it must be bad. I managed to get a 48-hour pass and caught the 5.55pm train from Paddington.

At Neath, Swansea passengers were told to get out because the train could not go any further. I soon hitched a lift with some Army personnel who were driving into the stricken town to help.

I walked along Neath Road and High Street to Alexandra Road, where everything was ablaze on both sides and I could have read a newspaper in the light. Then a Policeman stopped me and would not let me go on because of unexploded bombs. He advised me to go up Orchard Street and make my way up the little terraces at the back of Mount Pleasant to get to Rhondda Street.

As I walked, the whole area seemed to be on fire. At one house, where smoke was pouring through the roof, people were bringing out an old couple. The old lady asked me, 'Is it like this everywhere?' She must have thought the whole country was under attack.

Up on Mount Pleasant I came across more devastation, as houses had been destroyed in Norfolk Street and were now just piles of debris.

When I arrived at our house, 87 Rhondda Street, another shock awaited me, when a man in uniform opened the door. Imagine my relief when I found that my new wife was safe. My father-in-law, George Bladen, Commander of No.5 Platoon, 12th Battalion, Home Guard, had been sending some of his men down to the house for rest breaks, during their fraught and distressing night on Townhill, and one had answered the door.

Sixty years on from the Blitz, in January 2001, my wife and I celebrated our Diamond wedding anniversary surrounded by two daughters, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. However, that night is still fresh in my memory, when as a young twenty year old, I returned to experience my beloved hometown ablaze."