28 VJ Day war heroes - faces of veterans honoured today at emotional memorial with King at National Arboretum in Staffordshire

Today we provide you with the faces of some of those who fought in the war and saw peace arrive 80 years ago today. They are guest of honour at the event hosted by the Royal British Legion at the arboretum in Alrewas,

Charles, patron of the Royal British Legion, Camilla, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer were attending the event which honours British, Commonwealth and Allied veterans who served in the Far East theatres of war including Myanmar and the Pacific and Indian Ocean territories.

Around 1,500 guests will hear first-hand testimony from veterans who experienced conflict in the Far East before the war ended when atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japan’s surrender and VJ Day on August 15 1945.

The service was beginning with a national two-minute silence and include flypasts by the Red Arrows and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster – with military bagpipers playing at dawn in the Far East section of the Arboretum.

Many of the veterans at the arboretum in Alrewas have never told their story before registering with the RBL to be part of commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory Over Japan.

Veterans attending the event served in the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, with roles ranging from those deployed on submarines, minesweepers and destroyers, to a Spitfire pilot and a combat cameraman.

Bill Redston, 100, from Tettenhall, Wolverhampton,  joined the Royal Navy when he was 18. He said  he was  proud of his involvement in D-Day which he called "the top occasion" having spent four years in the navy during World War Two. 

He had been due to guide US soldiers on to Utah Beach during the landings but the Americans wanted their own ship to lead them in and Mr Redston's crew was instead tasked with bringing barges over the Channel.

They later found out the replacement ship had been sunk with its crew suffering many casualties.

After D-Day, Mr Redston and his comrades were sent to patrol in Burma in the same motor boat until the end of the war when Japanese forces surrendered 80 years ago today.

"So all in all in my eyes I had a very interesting dealing both with Europe and the Far East," he said.

The oldest veterans are Yavar Abbas and Owen Filer, aged 105, and other attendees include two of the last surviving Chindits – Charlie Richards, 104, and Sid Machin, 101 – who served in the elite Special Forces unit known for their deep jungle warfare tactics as part of Operation Thursday.