VETERANS from Colchester who risked their lives in perilous sea missions to help allies have been awarded medals more than 70 years on.

Twenty Ushakov medals were presented to those who displayed personal courage and bravery during their service in the Arctic Convoys in the Second World War.

The convoys sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union, now in modern day Russia, to deliver essential supplies.

They were escorted by Navy ships and faced the continual threat of attacks from either German aircraft or submarines.

It was only following a Russian Presidential Decree in 2013 that it was decided British veterans should be awarded the Ushakov medal.

The Embassy of the Russian Federation has been holding presentation ceremonies across the country since.

The latest was to honour veterans that now live in and near the Colchester area.

More than 100 guests attended the moving ceremony at Colchester Town Hall.

Medals were presented by Attachés of the Russian Embassy, Vadim Retuynskiy and Oleg Shor, and Assistant Naval Attaché Commander Dmitry Sharapov.

Mr Retuynskiy thanked the veterans for their invaluable contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Among them was Frederic Wheat, 90, from Shrub End, Colchester.

He signed up to be an Able Seaman in the Navy, just as he turned 17.

"They needed food and they needed guns and we tried to give them help," he said.

"It was very hairy."

He told how sailors constantly felt under threat from submarine fire and narrowly escaped death himself while on the HMS Offa, a destroyer.

"I was sent down to get cocoa powder and I said it wasn't my turn.

"The senior person on the gun side said not to argue and I went to the galley.

"The gun got blown up by an aircraft bomber along with all the other people on it."

Mr Wheat had been the wrong side of the gun when the explosion went off, avoiding the devastating consequences.

But it was another experience which resonates more poignantly with him.

"On one day there I was on the lookout and a voice was shouting out 'mother'.

"We looked into the water and there was a lad shouting for his mother.

"We tried to get him up the side of the ship but he died and that's the kind of thing we had to do."

That youngster had come from a merchant naval ship.

Mr Wheat admitted he signed up for the Navy despite being in a good job and earning a good wage and recalled how he put off telling his parents until the last minute.

"They swore at me!" he said.

"I thought I should protect my family, I had two sisters and mum and dad and I went up to Ipswich and volunteered."

Speaking about his medal, he said: "It has been well over 60 years - the one I got today is special."

Also to receive a medal was Stan Cole, 91, of Leavenheath, who was just 19 when he was called up to serve in the Navy during the Second World War.

"It was tough," he said.

"It brings back so many memories."

Mr Cole was a seaman on HMS Melita, a minesweeper for the convoys heading to Russia.

He had a choice in signing up between the airforce, Army and Navy and admitted he opted for the latter, "for the uniform".

Mr Cole had just three months' training when he joined in 1942.

He had previously been a builder at Boxted airfield, helping to lay the runways.

Mr Cole said: "I was nearly two years on the national convoys. It was from out of Scotland to Murmask.

"I was an operator who searched for submarine signals underwater.

"We used to have these earphones and you could listen and hear the porpoises and whales talking to each other."

"We were all young, we were all scared," he added.

After leaving the Navy he went to work for Hills' builders in Colchester where he began as a labourer and bricklayer and finished as its director, retiring 30 years ago.

Mr Cole said it was great to receive the Ushakov medal at long last.

"The Russians have really looked after us throughout - it's from a Russian general," he proudly declared.

Colchester's Mayor Theresa Higgins attended the ceremony, along with a number of other dignitaries including High Steward Sir Bob Russell.

Mrs Higgins said: "I am very pleased to watch members of the Russian Embassy present the medals to the veterans of the Arctic convoys.

"Having read about it, it was pretty perilous journey.

"It is well deserved and true heroism."

Conditions were among the worst faced by any Allied sailors. As well as the Germans, they faced extreme cold, gales and pack ice. The loss rate for ships was higher than any other Allied convoy route.

More than four million tons of supplies were delivered. As well as tanks and aircraft, these included less sensational but still vital items like trucks, tractors, telephone wire, railway engines and boots.