The cash will allow many veterans to revisit battle sites

Lottery cash will help veterans, spouses and their carers to make the trips, with more than 700 people benefiting from the first grants.

A group of 49 Normandy veterans from across the South West is among the recipients.

The grants are part of the Heroes Return Scheme under the Lottery's New Opportunities Fund.

Among those being given money are Dennis Davis, an army veteran from Bristol and William Hailes from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire.

Despite earlier trips to the Normandy beaches, Mr Hailes said he had been unable to face visiting the war cemeteries.

A spokesman for the scheme said: "Thousands more awards are likely to be made under the scheme, which runs until the end of next year.

"It will enable those who served abroad during the Second World War to return to battlefields, cemeteries and other places which hold special memories for them."