Eye fixed after 67 years

A man who was blinded in one eye during the Blitz has had his sight restored by Scottish specialists, 66 years later. John Gray, 87, was badly injured during the Luftwaffe's bombing raid on Clydeside and was told he would never again see through his right eye.

However, when he started to go blind in his left eye too, specialists decided to see if there was anything they could do about the wartime wound. An eye surgeon at Glasgow's Southern General replaced the scarred lens. Mr Gray can now see through the eye he has not used in six decades and is sufficiently sighted to sit a driving test.

In 1941, he was on duty as a firewatcher when the air raid sirens sounded. As the night drew on he watched as the German Luftwaffe flew overhead on their way to drop thousands of tonnes of explosives on Clydeside.

It was to be the most devastating bombing raid the Germans were to carry out in Glasgow. And it was the last thing John remembered for several days.