One of the biggest crowds in years gave a hero's welcome to Bermuda's war veterans in the Remembrance Day ceremonies yesterday.

Three abreast and 13 deep the proud servicemen marched up Front Street to sustained applause.

Time may have taken its toll on their number but it can never diminish their contribution which lives on in the tales they tell. Among them was Royal Navy veteran Frank Farmer, 79, who served across the globe after joining up as a teenager.

He was aboard when it was bombed in the Pacific as the Allies zeroed in on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

"Fortunately we only lost three lives."

As a stoker in the engine room he was highly vulnerable to torpedoes.

"We had other things to occupy our minds, you tried not to think about it."

On his mind yesterday were his two brothers ? Philip who died while serving in the British army in France in 1940 and RAF man Harry, of Bomber Command, who died the month before the war ended.

"His body was never found. They presumed he bailed out over the channel."

Another ex-navy man Arthur Hughes helped escort the Atlantic convey ? Britain's lifeline from America ? and helped shoot down a reconnaissance plane.

Although just a speck on the horizon it could have spelled disaster for the fleet before three fighters were summoned to deal with it while Mr. Hughes let fly with his anti-aircraft gun.

"We don't know if we hit him or one of the fighter planes. He hit the sea at a steep angle, there was no way he could get out of it.

"We were told to get away as he might have radioed to a submarine."

It was some revenge for an early encounter with the Germans before he was even old enough to join up.

"I was in the blitz in Liverpool and an unexploded bomb landed ten feet away.

"It was about six foot tall with a 36-hour fuse. I was sitting on the toilet at the time but forgot what I was there for," said Mr. Hughes who attended a gathering yesterday at Albuoy's Point in commemoration of cruiser HMS Jervis Bay which, despite being hopelessly outgunned, took on German pocked battleship Admiral Scheer to allow the rest of the North Atlantic convoy to escape. The suicide mission worked but led to the loss of the ship and 140 lives.

Navy veteran Eric Smith, 85, also worked on convoy escort during his six years in the navy aboard the light cruiser .

He was torpedoed of Greenland in 1940 and spent 20 minutes in a lifeboat before being picked up by another vessel.

"We all survived. It happened in June but it was damn cold." recalled Mr. Smith.

The weather at yesterday's ceremony was not much kinder with wind and rain but it did not deter large numbers of people from turning up to show their appreciation.

Community Affairs and Sport Minister Dale Butler said: "It was one of the biggest crowds in years. You get a little bit concerned you are losing veterans, you don't want to lose the crowds.

"It was very good, I am very pleased. People went to show their respect for our war veterans."

Mr. Butler, who in 1999 donated an educational pack documenting the Island's contribution in the two World Wars, said: "It's very encouraging, it's an important part of our history and culture."

Steven Cardozo was with his wife and five-year-old daughter waiting for his grandfather Ron Firth to march past.

"We never miss it," said Mr. Cardoza. "We came when my daughter was two months old."

He said Mr. Firth had coxed a landing craft in D-Day which had been hit by a round which went through it out and out the other side. But he said his grandfather had never been awarded a medal for operating the landing craft but had been told he would have to go to France to collect it.

Camillia Withers-Clarke, who was at the event with her children, said: "It definitely stirs things in me ? the whole ceremony."

However, while she was moved by the significance of the event she admitted her offspring had other motives.

"Marching soldiers and big drums are pretty important to a two-year-old boy," she said just as her son Alex broke into applause as the procession passed.

But as he gets older he may learn more about the reasons for the pomp and ceremony.

David Bell, who comes out for the parade every year, said it was important for the younger generation to realise the importance of the second world war in saving freedom.

"Young folk don't realise how close the Germans were to the island and to the US and New York City with their submarines."