Monte Cassino

There was also £12,000 to allow World War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 years after Allied Forces won a crucial victory there.

Allied soldiers described their shock at seeing Wojtek carrying artillery shells during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

Sometimes remembered as the "D-Day Dodgers", in reference to their role away from Normandy, men in Italy faced brutal conditions as they battled to take Monte Cassino and dislodge enemy soldiers.

Enemy soldiers were dug in on defensive lines across the country, and at Monte Cassino it took four separate attacks from US, British, Polish and Commonwealth forces to destroy and take the hilltop monastery.

He fled agricultural service in Kilmarnock as a teenager to get to Glasgow to enlist as an infantryman before ending up "right in the forefront" of the battle for Monte Cassino.