SIXTY years ago Eric Allen was a teenager fighting for Britain in the sweltering heat of the Pacific Ocean.

Having lied about his age to get into the Navy, Eric then found himself battling against the Japanese thousands of miles from home aboard HMS Illustrious.

Just months before the Japanese capitulated, Eric was on board the ship when a kamikaze pilot crashed his flying bomb into the hull of the ship, throwing Eric down a stairwell and rupturing an eardrum and leaving him deaf in one ear.

Now decades after he was last in Sydney, where his ship was based when not at sea, the 79-year-old is preparing to return to Australia thanks to the Big Lottery Fund's Heroes Return scheme.

The scheme awards grants to people who have fought for their country to enable them to return to the battlefields of the Second World War as the 60th anniversary of the end of the conflict approaches.

So far more than 3,000 veterans and their family have been awarded grants under the scheme and for Eric and his wife of 55-years, Josephine, they are two of the fortunate ones.

Eric, of Abbots Barton, near Winchester, who has two children and five grandchildren, said: "According to Navy records I'm 81, but I wanted to join the Navy and if you hung around until you were 18 you were put straight into the Army, so I had to lie a bit.

"I was only 16 and a bit when I joined up. We were young and we wanted to fight for our country."

Eric says he started on board HMS Illustrious in the freezing North Atlantic trying to tempt the German navy ships out of their base.

He was then sent to the Mediterranean where he fought against the Italian navy.

Upon the Italians' surrender, HMS Illustrious was due to accompany the confiscated Italian boats to Britain, but during the journey they were ordered to go to the Pacific to tackle the Japanese.

His trip back to Australia in April will be the first time he's been able to go back since. But it's not the first time he has thought about returning.

He added: "I have always wanted to return with my wife. It's a beautiful country and they treated us so well."

Of the Heroes Return scheme, he said: "Though I'm one of the younger veterans, I'm not getting any younger and it's great to have this opportunity."

For more details about Heroes Return, call 0845 410 2030