A WAR veteran who survived five years of hard labour as a German prisoner of war will tell his story in a documentary marking the 70th anniversary of the famous Dunkirk evacuation of 1940.

In one of the largest rescue operations of all time, more than 338,000 British and French troops were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk during the Second World War following the advance of the German army.

But for every seven soldiers who made it home, one man was left behind as a prisoner of war, among them Charles Waite, now 91, from Thundersley.

Mr Waite, who served as a private in the Queen’s Royal Regiment, an infantry division, was called up on October 18, 1939, and sent to France a few weeks before his 21st birthday to become a driver.

After being captured close to Dunkirk, Mr Waite spent almost five years as a PoW, interned in a labour camp in East Prussia, now Poland, and forced to carry out heavy manual labour on pitiful rations.

Mr Waite was finally liberated two days before his 26th birthday and made it home to marry his childhood sweetheart Lily.

Now, 70 years on, Mr Waite is set to share his remarkable story of survival in the documentary which will concentrate on the stories of those left behind at Dunkirk.

Mr Waite described the terrifying moment he realised he was going to be taken prisoner by the Nazis. An officer mistakenly led them into the path of German troops.

He said: “In 1940 I didn’t get to Dunkirk, although I should have done because I was in the company transports.

“We were held up on the side of the road, and I saw a lot of black tanks coming towards us.

“I thought they were French and we had just pulled over to let them pass, but I saw one had a great big Swastika on the front. I can’t describe the feeling I had.”

Abandoned by the officer, who fled, calling to the men to do the same, Mr Waite tried to run, but found himself surrounded by around 500 German troops.

He said: “I ran no more than 30 yards, and there were men screaming and crying out all around me, which scared the life out of me.

“I dropped to the ground and waited for it to go quiet. I was scared of what they might do to me if I was the only one they found left alive.

“I had taken my helmet off to end it quickly.”

After being taken on a forced march, the soldiers were then loaded into cattle trucks and taken to a camp around 15 miles north of Danzig, now Gdansk, in East Prussia.

Life in the camp was unremitting misery, where the men were set back-breaking tasks, including breaking up rocks and loading them on to train carts.

They endured many hardships, with Mr Waite once being beaten with a bayonet after daring to complain about the prisoners’ food.

He said: “It was really rough, it was a terrible time.”

After the camp was liberated by American troops on May 6, 1945, Mr Waite marched to Berlin, before flying on a Dakota back to Horsham, in Sussex.

He said: “That’s where I reported to when I signed up, and it seemed incredible to me I had gone back there after all that time.

“We were in a terrible state. When I went into the Army I was 9st 4lb, and at the end I was down to 7st and was covered in fleas and lice.”

Throughout his time as a prisoner Mr Waite had kept in touch with Lily by letters sent from the camp, which often took as long as two months to arrive. He had met Lily aged just 18 and when he was demobbed the couple married and had a son, Brian.

After the war, he returned home to Barking, before moving to Parkstone Avenue, Thundersley, with his work with a pharmaceutical company.

During filming for the documentary, Mr Waite, now settled in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, got his first ever passport in order to make a pilgrimage back to Dunkirk to remember his fallen comrades.

He said: “Going back was really quite emotional. I cried at the first memorial, where I laid a holly wreath.

“When we went to Dunkirk beach with the film crew, it was the first time I had ever stood on the beach.”

Despite originally feeling angry with the officer who accidentally led them to their fate, Mr Waite has since forgiven the man.

He said: “Now I think he saved my life. We didn’t get to Dunkirk, but if we had, we would have probably been bombed or machine-gunned in the water on our way to the boats.

“I can’t swim, so I would have either drowned on my way to the boats or died on the beach.

“Instead, here I am 70 years later still talking about it, so I was pretty lucky.”

l Dunkirk: The Forgotten Heroes is broadcast at 10pm tonight on Yesterday digital TV channel.