Mr Hills spent much of the war at the Stalag 383 POW camp.

Trevor Hills was serving with the Royal Engineers when he was deployed with colleagues to defend Greece from the invading German Army.

He was captured in 1941 and spent four years in a prisoner-of-war camp.

Now, more than 60-years later, Mr Hills from Gelliswick, near Milford Haven, has been awarded a citation and medal by the Greek National Defence Minister for his part in the campaign.

Quite a few died from lack of food until the Red Cross parcels started coming through again Trevor Hills

The former professional opera singer says the honour has brought back a lot of memories about his service in the armed forces.

"We were stationed near Athens until war was declared," he said.

"We went up to the north of Greece and then the Germans broke through and chased us all the way back down.

"We kept up in the hills and sand dunes during the day and went down to the beach at night looking for boats to escape.

"Unfortunately I was captured."

Mr Hills spent time in various prisoner-of-war camps across Europe before finally ending up at the Stalag 383 camp at the foot of the Bavarian mountains.

It was there that he developed a passion for opera after joining the camp choir.

Granddaughter

The men put on productions to keep themselves busy but Mr Hills said it was also a difficult time.

As the war drew to a close food became scarce and some of the 6,000 men being held did not survive.

"Quite a few died from lack of food until the Red Cross parcels started coming through again," said Mr Hills.

He vividly remembers the Americans liberating the camp.

"Most of them were boys from the south and were chewing on big fat cigars," he added.

Mr Hills remained in the army until 1947 and shortly after joined the London-based D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

He performed in productions across the world.

His latest medal will go alongside his Africa Star, 39-45 Campaign medal and Victory medal.

"Me eldest granddaughter Megan took them into school to show her class and they seemed very pleased as they had not seen anything like them before.