WHEN Jim Surr stands at Skipton War Memorial on Sunday to mark Victory over Japan Day, he will be thinking about his fallen comrades.

The war veteran will also reflect upon the twist of fate that meant that out of his whole regiment only he and five colleagues made it back to Britain alive.

Mr Surr, of Embsay, has now written a book about his experiences in Japan as a prisoner of war during World War Two.

It is entitled "Trust in God and keep your bowels open" - the words of advice that were called to him by his future mother-in-law as the train, taking him to war, pulled out of the railway station in 1941.

These words came back to haunt him during two near-death experiences.

The first one was when Mr Surr, who was in the 242Battery 48th LAA Regiment, Royal Artillery, and one of his comrades voluntarily went to man a Bren gun during an air raid.

They later returned to their tent to find his backpack, which he had used for a pillow, pierced by shrapnel.

But the more significant twist of fate was when Mr Surr suffered a bout of dysentery (he suffered 22 times in all) and was hospitalised.

Meanwhile the 48th LAA Regiment, with which Mr Surr was a Lance Bombardier, were transported to Borneo.

There they either died of malnutrition or were slaughtered under the instructions of the Emperor of Japan after the atom bombs were dropped.

Mr Surr, who celebrated his 21st birthday during the war, spent three-and-a-half years in a prisoner of war camp.

He was taken prisoner after the Dutch capitulated and, as the British were under their command at the time, they had to follow suit.

When Mr Surr eventually came home from war, he found that they were not greeted in the same way that their counterparts who had fought in Europe had been. There were no fireworks or bands playing.

"We just crept back into the country. People did not know we had come home. The only thing was that we were allowed through customs without any trouble," he explained.

Mr Surr said it was important for him to go to the war memorial on Sunday to remember the friends he lost and to honour their contribution to the war.

"It's a kind of grieving in a way. Some of them were 24 and 25 - they had had no life and it was taken away," he said.

"August 15 was the last day of the war. People forget that. There were not two separate wars - it was all one war."

The war veteran is hoping that he will be able to get his story published.

He said: "I wanted the family to know and the family wanted to know. Ever since I came home I said when I retired I would write a book."

He also wants the sale of his book to help raise money for the Skipton and District Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, of which he is president.