JOHN Bridge stripped to his underpants before plunging into the murky river water and using his bare feet to search for a deadly German bomb.
It turned out to be cylindrical, six feet long, attached by a wire to a flotation chamber and weighed "a ton."
"I couldn't see the mine because the water was so dirty, so I used my toes to explore it and find out as much as possible," the 90-year-old recalls.
Death stalked the skies, the land and the seas during World War II – and no-one was safe.
Hundreds of Wearsiders lost their lives in Hitler's air raids as Sunderland became one of Britain's seven most heavily bombed towns and cities.
Hundreds more – including many of Sunderland's 125 Anti-Tank Regiment – died in the fight for freedom. The war was won at grave personal cost.
"I escaped death at least nine times in the war, but many were not as fortunate," said Mr Bridge, a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy.
"That is why Remembrance Sunday is so important, because these chaps gave their lives."
Mr Bridge, a bomb disposal expert, won the George Cross in 1943 after helping to make 290 booby-traps safe at the Sicilian port of Messina.
Another of his tough wartime tasks came in September 1944, when German frogmen planted a mine against the Nijmegen Bridge in Holland.
He used his feet to feel for the bomb in the muddy water, then slipped a loop around the explosive with his big toe, attaching the mine to lifting gear.
The mine was later taken apart by Mr Bridge, who used a hammer and chisel to smash the locking ring and remove the firing mechanism.
"That was it, job done," said Mr Bridge – who was one of only two men to win the George Medal with bar as well as the George Cross.

THE glamour of flying attracted many young men during the war, including former Durham miner Eddie Eastwood.
But the 82-year-old, who served as a wireless operator with the RAF, admits: "It is an experience I wouldn't want to go through again.
"I was one of the lucky ones, though, as I survived. A hell of a lot of people, many of them my friends, didn't."
Mr Eastwood was attached to the Canadian 431 Iroquois Squadron, based at Croft, when his Halifax bomber was shot down over Hamburg in 1944.
"I put my feet out of the escape hatch and the slipstream caught my boots. When I bent over to grab them, my parachute caught on the hatch," he said.
"The next thing I can remember is hurtling through space. I couldn't really do anything when I landed because I just had my socks on."
Mr Eastwood, from Great Lumley, was captured almost immediately and interrogated by the Gestapo before being shipped to a Polish prison camp.
Later, as the Allies advanced, he was forced to walk through snow and ice for three weeks before being squeezed into a cattle truck for several days.
He was eventually freed by the Russians >>> >>> in May 1945 and, after marrying a Durham girl, became a miner and later started his own business.
"Remembrance Sunday is a reminder to youngsters of what people my age went through. It's also a way of trying to stop it happening again," he said.

WHILE the war was raging in the air and at sea, the 600 soldiers of Wearside's 125 Anti-Tank Regiment found themselves in mortal danger too.
The unit was captured to a man by the Japanese during the fall of Singapore in 1942, with most being sent to work on the notorious Burma Railway.
Lance-bombardier Len Gibson, now 85, still has vivid memories of the appalling conditions which left dozens of his colleagues dead.
"I watched so many of my friends die when they shouldn't have. They just needed better food and proper medical help," he recalls.
"The conditions were absolutely terrible. Of the 1,000 men who started work on one building project, only 300 were left after just three months."
As his old schoolmates and fellow prisoners succumbed to disease and starvation, Len battled on by keeping his spirits up with a home-made guitar. His old banjo had sunk with his troop ship.
"The people who fought in both world wars did so for our sake, if they hadn't then we wouldn't have the freedom we enjoy today," he said.
"It's important we remember all who died – not just this year, but every year. They gave their lives to fight for freedom, they shouldn't ever be forgotten."

BACK on the home front, amid the air raids and bomb devastation, a group of "girls" fought to keep the skies over the North East safe.
Lily Taylor, 83, who lives near Mowbray Park, operated barrage balloons during the war. "It was a man's job really," she recalls.
"We had to learn to splice wire ropes, handle a marlin-spike, tie different knots, drive a winch and pull heavy concrete blocks all over the place. We also had to do guard duty each night."
Lily, originally from Hull, was called up for the WAAF just after her 19th birthday in 1941 and posted to RAF Longbenton as a balloon operator.
"One night a very frightening thing happened. Quite a storm was blowing up and we were instructed to ground the balloon.
"We brought it down and tried hard to secure it, but it was bouncing all over the place. All of a sudden, I was whipped into the air.
"I thought it was going to throw me right over the balloon, so I loosened my grip and slithered to the ground. I got very nasty rope burn on both hands."
Lily's group of "girls" was scattered when the balloons were transferred to London in 1943. She was posted to a Bomber Comand site in Lincolnshire.
And it was at that base she met her first husband, Arthur Corrigan, while checking the register of fliers arriving back from operations.
He died of cancer just a few years later, at the age of just 35. A doctor told Lily the disease had probably been brought on by the stress of the war.
She said: "Such a lot of sacrifices were made by young men and women in the war. If they hadn't made them, we would probably have been part of Germany.
"It is important that we remember these sacrifices. They gave their today for our tomorrow. I don't want that forgotten."


RAF band will lead parade attended by Royals

SUNDERLAND'S Remembrance Parade is one of the biggest events in the country – and will be led this year by The Band of the Royal Air Force.
War heroes will march alongside serving soldiers, and a two-minute silence will be held as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for Britain.
Prince Edward and his wife Sophie will be among the guests – making history as the first royals to attend a Remembrance Day service in an English city outside London.
Members of HMS Ocean, the city's adopted ship, will also be attending, together with serving soldiers from the Household Division of the Army.
Parade co-organiser Brian Carr, of the North East Ambulance Service, said: "There can be no doubt that the Household Cavalry and the Foot Guards will bring a great sense of occasion to the parade.
"I hope that all involved in this great parade can give our veterans a day that they will consider worthy of their sacrifice 60 years ago."
The Foot Guards will be represented by 1st Battalion The Coldstream Guards, who have only recently returned from operations in Iraq.
Two of the unit's soldiers died in Iraq, while a third – Sunderland-born Tony Carr, the son of Brian Carr, was killed last December while on exercise.
About 100 serving gunners from the 5th and 40th regiments of the Royal Artillery are also travelling to Sunderland to mark Remembrance Sunday.
Len Gibson, who served with Sunderland's 125 Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery, said: "We former Gunners are very proud that so many serving members of the Royal Artillery are prepared to join us on this special day.
"It is a day when we remember not only my comrades who died on the Burma-Siam Railway and in the jungles of Burma, but those who gave their all from whatever service, and of course those who still face danger today."
Fire Service staff from around Britain will also attend Sunderland's parade, which has become an unofficial focus for firefighters on Remembrance Sunday.
Special wreaths will be laid to remember Christopher Feetham and Tom Bruce, who both won gallantry medals for firefighting in Sunderland.
Indeed, the George Cross was awarded to Mr Fleetham in 1918, after he risked his life to tackle a blaze on board the explosive-laden SS Hornsey.
Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services for England and Wales, Sir Graham Meldrum, who served in Sunderland in the 1980s, will be a guest at the parade and said:
"The Fire and Rescue Services are very proud to be playing such a positive role in the organisation of this great and poignant occasion in Sunderland.
"Remembrance services show our appreciation of all that was achieved 60 years ago, and indeed highlight our own losses as a service during the Blitz and since."
Another of the parade guests will be Sunderland-born Freda McKay, mother of the late Sgt Ian McKay, who served with the Parachute Regiment.
Sgt McKay won the Victoria Cross during the Falklands War in 1982, after saving the lives of his comrades by attacking the enemy while under fire.
He was killed at the moment of victory, however, his body falling on a bunker.
Mrs McKay, who regularly travels from her home in Rotherham to take part in Sunderland's Remembrance Parades, said: "I am delighted that Ian's Platoon from 3 Para' will be on parade to help remember all who did not return from the South Atlantic 23 years ago, and of course from other conflicts before and since. It will be a very moving day."
A 100-strong Rifle Company and 16 buglers from the 2nd Battalion The Light Infantry, a unit with strong ties to Wearside, will also be taking part.
The Battalion continues the traditions of Durham Light Infantry and its history can be traced back to 1758, when Lieutenant Colonel John Lambton, grandfather of the first Earl of Durham, was commanding officer.
Battalion buglers will sound the Last Post during the service, as well as provide an escort for Lillian Wakenshaw, daughter of Adam Wakenshaw VC.
Mr Wakenshaw was the last member of the DLI to win the Victoria Cross. He was killed whilst under bombardment from German artillery in June 1942.
He is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetary at El Alamein, and his gun stands in the Durham Light Infantry museum.


* Sunderland Council has arranged public seating for the Remembrance Service, which will take place at the War Memorial in Mowbray Park.
Visitors are asked to take their seats between 9am and 9.30am, while those taking part in the parade should muster at the Civic Centre from 9.30am.
The parade will step off at 10.30am, followed by the service at 11am. Free parking will be available at Civic Centre car park via Cowan Terrace.
For further details contact Arthur Lockyear on 0191 444 1240 or 01291 373 2035.