THE son of a Victoria Cross-decorated war hero will visit the famous battlefields his father fought in during the Second World War.

Brigadier Iain Cameron, 62, of Chitterne Road, Codford, will visit Alta in Norway where his dad, Lieutenant Donald Cameron, destroyed the German battleship Tirpitz.

Lieutenant Cameron was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry and immortalised in the 1955 film Above Us The Waves. starring John Mills.

His son and widow, Eve, were given a Lottery grant to enable them to visit the fjord.

Accompanying them is Brigadier Cameron's godfather and his father's second-in-command John Lorimer.

The Heroes Return scheme, funded by the National Lottery, helps veterans and their families visit historic battlefields.

Brigadier Cameron said: "It will put some colour into the hundreds of stories I heard as a boy.

"Although my father never talked about it, I don't think people of his generation spoke of gallantry or bravery.

"We heard so much about it at school and they made the film about it, Above Us The Waves.

"It was a beautiful battleship but there you go. Needs must.

"The Lottery scheme is a wonderful opportunity because it gives so many families and veterans the chance to find out more about the war."

A chance meeting five years ago led to the trip. Brigadier Cameron met his godfather's daughter Bridget after she moved to Codford.

"I was at a lunch party and I was sat next to Bridget," Brigadier Cameron said.

"We had never met before because I had lost contact with the family. We got chatting and realised our backgrounds.

"It was a complete coincidence but we stayed in contact and planned the trip together

"It will be the first time we will go back to Kaa Fjord as a group, John Lorimer has been back before, but this is the first time for the rest of us,

"The Lottery funding has been very helpful to us all in being able to make this trip."

Lieutenant Cameron, of the Royal Navy Reserve, and Lieutenant Basil Place both won VCs for bravery in leading their X-craft mini submarines through antisubmarine and torpedo nets to place charges on the mighty German ship.

They were eventually forced to scuttle their vessels with little loss of life.

Both men and their crews were taken prisoner aboard the ship before they escaped and detonated the charges.

The citation on Lieutenant Cameron's Victoria Cross read: "The courage, endurance and utter contempt for danger in the immediate face of the enemy showed by Lieutenants Place and Cameron during this determined attack were supreme."

Sub Lieutenant Lorimer said: "The Tirpitz was the most magnificent ship I had ever seen.

"It seemed an awful pity to blow her up, but there we are."