THEIR armies faced each other in the heat of the Tunisian desert preparing for a fight to the death 62 years ago.

But today Karl Konig, of Hamburg, and Ken Ewing, of Poole, are the best of friends.

The pair, who were reunited at a recent visit to Bovington Tank Museum, were placed on opposite sides of in the struggle of the Second World War with Ken, 82, fighting in tanks with the Sherwood Rangers and Karl, 81, a gun-loader in a Panzer tank with the 21st Panzer Division.

They never met on the battlefield, despite both finding themselves in tanks rolling into action at the Battle of Tebaga Gap in North Africa in March 1943.

But the veterans were brought together with a coincidental meeting in Bayeux more than 15 years ago.

Karl said: "I was staying in the same hotel as Ken, who was in Bayeux for a Sherwood Rangers memorial march.

"We got talking and when I told him I was in the 21st Panzer he said 'You swine' and gave me a bear hug.

"He and his other comrades wanted me to march with them - and when I said I didn't think it would be right he said 'Why not? You are one of us' and handed me a beret, so I marched with them."

The men have been friends ever since and Karl is now an honorary member of the Sherwood Rangers Veterans Association, paying regular visits to Ken in Poole and to the tank museum.

Ken, of Bowden Road, Alderney, said: "We had a lot of respect for Germans in the desert.

"They were good soldiers, brave, and had much better tanks than we did."

Museum spokesman Nik Wyness said: "There is such warmth between them that it is almost impossible to believe they were ever enemies."

First published: May 16