RUTH Boffy of Upwey, Weymouth, got in touch after we featured the tragic 'Valentine' tank exercises in a previous edition of Looking Back.

Six men lost their lives when seven 'Valentine' tanks sank in an exercise off Studland on April 4, 1944, six weeks ahead of the D-Day landings.

Divers will place wreaths on the seven tanks on the 75th anniversary of the men's deaths on April 4, 2019. An exhibition is also being planned for the Discovery Centre at Knoll Beach.

Ruth wanted us to know that her father, Lance Corporal John Hampton, who was in the Royal Marines, was on a landing craft which was used alongside the exercise.

Ruth said: "My dad was on the landing craft at HMS Turtle. He was involved in exercises alongside these tanks.

"He would help escort these tanks around Studland and would be situated a few yards off the shore.

"He'd escort them doing practise runs and help to keep the waves away from them. He had to bring his landing craft off to Portland where he went off to D-Day."

Ruth said her father didn't talk much about his involvement in the D-Day landings.

She said: "I knew they brought the landing craft to Portland and the weather was really windy, like we've experienced recently.

"This all happened prior to him meeting my mother, who he met when he was on shore leave."