A BOLTON ex-Royal Navy submariner, who twice escaped from the Nazis during the Second World War, has died, aged 92.

Arthur Melling falsified his age at the outbreak of war in 1939 to enlist in the Royal Navy and after training, joined the crew of the submarine HMS Saracen.

The ship became notorious and feared in the Mediterranean, launching regular torpedo attacks and sinking Italian and German shipping, as well as attacking enemy ports, before being severely damaged by depth charges from the Italian corvettes Minerva and Euterpe off Bastia, on the French island of Corsica, in August 1943.

She had just landed three British agents on Corsica to spy on Axis forces and organise the Corsican Resistance on the strategically crucial island.

A plaque commemorating this has been erected in Bastia.

In 2015, the wreck of HMS Saracen was discovered and photographed on the seabed, at a depth of 1,385 feet (422m) off the coast of Corsica, where she remains as a war grave.

Saracen was scuttled by her crew the following day, Saturday August 14, because her captain, Lt Michael Lumby, did not want to sink his boat on unlucky Friday 13.

This meant the entire crew staying underwater until 2am the next day before he ordered his chief engineer to open the vents with the submarine's engines still running.

Along with other survivors, Arthur was pulled from the water by the Italian crew and handed over to the Germans as a prisoner of war.

He twice escaped, once from a prisoner of war camp and the second time from a transport train travelling through Italy.

A hole was blown through the roof of the carriage he was travelling in and Arthur climbed out and ran, under fire from the German guards, down an embankment, then swam over a river before being given shelter by sympathisers on a nearby farm.

The Germans had confiscated prisoners' boots so Arthur escaped barefooted and the Italians on the farm made him footwear from an old tractor tyre.

He remained on the run in Italy and joined up with bands of Italian partisans who were harrying the Germans, several times only just managing to evade recapture, on one occasion because he had learned to speak Italian and managed to convince a German patrol that he was a local peasant.

Arthur witnessed the Allied landings at Salerno from his hiding place in the hills and later reached the American lines where, instead of being hailed a hero, he was subjected to solitary confinement and intense interrogation and came close to being shot as a spy.

He eventually convinced the Americans of his identity and was repatriated, to the amazement and joy of his parents, who had been informed he was missing presumed dead.

After the war Arthur became a master butcher and owned two shops in Bolton.

Later he went into the construction industry as a concrete floor-layer.

On retirement he and wife Doris lived in Cyprus for eight years before returning to Bolton, eventually settling in Falkland Road, Breightmet.

In 2010 Arthur received a huge surprise from the Italian seaman who had rescued him from the sea back in 1943.

The Italian had contacted the Saracen Veterans’ Association, who provided him with Arthur’s contact details, the outcome of which was a nostalgic reunion in Venice of the two former adversaries.

That Christmas the Italian seaman sent Arthur and Doris a cake he had baked specially for them and this was featured with pictures in The Bolton News.

Arthur leaves wife Doris, six children, 13 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.