FOUR saplings were planted outside Colne Library in 1972 to mark a crucial turning point in the last war.

In August 1942, British convoys suffered heavy losses while bidding to bring relief to the Maltese, but it proved a significant event, preventing the Germans and Italians joining forces with the Japanese.

A Colne sailor, who had been involved in the Malta convoys was Norman Holmes, who remembered his lost Merchant Navy comrades by making small donations to the town – and the trees were another memorial to them.

He intended them to be a permanent reminder of the convoys in which his merchant ship, the Glenorchy was bombed, machine gunned and sunk by the Italians.

Norman, who became a local government officer, said: “I don’t want to forget. There were thousands of people killed and no-one should ever forget that.

“My memories of war are not pleasant ones, but neither are most people’s.”

A member of Burnley and District Naval Ex-Servicemen’s Association, he recalled the day when a special British convoy set sail to help the tortured Maltese with emergency supplies – food, aircraft, fuel and ammunition – to help ward off the siege by German and Italian forces.

Fourteen specially fast merchant ships were selected to make the run, which were escorted by a large contingent of warships.

Norman recalled: “When we reached the Mediterranean, all hell was let loose and we lost nine of the 14 ships.”

“The Glenorchy was hit in the engine room by a torpedo and was near to sinking when the order was given to abandon ship.

“Most of the crew left by lifeboat, but I and two other men went to the bridge to talk to the captain, who was ready to go down with the vessel.

“We tried to reason with him but we eventually had to jump overboard and I spent three hours in the water before reaching a Tunisian beach. “ During three months in a prisoner of war camp run by the Vichy French, Norman one day risked his life to drag a dying merchant seaman from the barbed wire surrounding the camp.

But his actions were secretly noted and the following year he was presented to King George VI.

Norman then joined the crew of a passenger ship, which carried Winston Churchill to wartime conferences in Canada, Cairo and Teheran.