DEVIZES journalist James Harrison has been tasked with co-ordinating a unique initiative to record the reminiscences of people in the West who lived through the Second World War.

Mr Harrison, a BBC employee for more than 18 years, is the regional co-ordinator for the Corporation's WW2 People's War website.

He said: "This is exactly the kind of thing which I enjoy most travelling around, getting people to tell their stories."

But with all the books, films, TV and radio programmes made since the end of the war, isn't World War Two exhausted as far as new stories are concerned?

"Not in the slightest," said Mr Harrison.

He added: "For example, the war against Japan was particularly brutal and many people who lived through it have never talked about it. Many of them are in their 80s now, so there is not that much time left to persuade them to tell their stories."

The People's War was launched nationally in November 2003 and there are already about 15,000 stories on the website, out of the 80,000 target that the BBC has set itself.

Mr Harrison has been given a regional target of 5,000 stories and he is confident that he will meet it.

One of the Wiltshire stories on the website is that of Keith Haines, who now lives in Australia, who was evacuated to Wiltshire as a child in 1939. He had contacted BBC Wiltshire to try to find his temporary billet, which he only knew was called Dial House.

Mr Harrison said: "It was suggested it might have been Dial House in Seend, but I remembered that there is a Dial House in West Lavington and when Keith saw it, he knew it was the right place."

Mr Haines was five years old when he came to West Lavington with his sisters Sheila, 12, and Brenda, nine.

He remembered: "The couple who ran it were very good to us and it had a better atmosphere than where we had been before at Bradford on Avon.

"The husband used to teach us boxing and even when one of the bigger kids got a lucky punch in one day and split his nose open, he still kept his good humour."

If you are not on the internet, do not despair. One of Mr Harrison's jobs is to set up a number of "associate centres", mainly libraries, where people who wish to contribute to the website can do so with expert help on hand.

The People's War website can be accessed on www.bbc.co.uk/ww2