Len Burritt, 96, of Binfield, served in the 7th Armoured Brigade, the 'Desert Rats’, who fought in every major battle during the North Africa Campaign.

Their red rat motif was transferred to the new 7th Infantry Brigade at a ceremony in Bergen-Hohne. Len joined the army at 18 in 1936 and was in charge of wireless communications for the 7th Armoured Brigade.

He said: “I served as a wireless operator using Morse Code to pass message from north Africa to places as far afield as Hong Kong, Palestine and India. Eight different generals were in command during the campaign and I was the personal wireless operator for the first five of them.” Len said that he came up with the name desert rat. He was with his general when the two of them saw a young boy with a jerboa. The general traced the outline and, a short while later, the first hand-sewn patches depicting the animal arrived. The general wanted to call the regiment the jerboas but Len suggested the Desert Rats as an alternative.

Len said: “He gave me the first one and told me to sew it on my topee and he said 'you’re the first desert rat.’” Len worked in Armoured Command Vehicles, often positioned near the front line. He said: “I remember quite clearly an attack on our convoy by the Italian Air Force. As the pilot swooped down low there was no burst of gunfire.

On this occasion he simply opened the cockpit window and threw a mechanic’s wrench at us instead. Corporal Burgon BEM, of the Despatch Riders troop, shot him down using an anti-tank rifle.” The enemy weren’t the only danger Len faced. After one vicious sandstorm, Len was left with sand trapped behind his eyes. He had a lengthy operation and had to wear bandages for two weeks.

Surviving the desert, Len landed on the Salerno beaches during the famous D-Day landings. He rose to the rank of Sergeant Major and fought in over 100 battles in 15 different countries before being demobbed in May 1946.

Len’s trip is being funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return programme, which has awarded over £28 million to more than 57,000 Second World War veterans, spouses, widows and carers to make journeys of remembrance since 2004.