Keira Knightley on her gran

11. It wasn’t until later that I wished I’d had a good conversation with her about what she and my grandfather Mac, who died before I was born, did during World War II.

“It’s a period of time I find endlessly fascinating. I have starred in a lot of films set in World War II but I hadad never looked into what my own family mily went through.

“To find out more about my grandparents’ war, I travelled all over Scotland in an attempt to piece it all together. I also spoke to my mum, my cousin and historians, who helped fill in n the gaps.”

Keira discovered when Germany many declared war on Britain in September 1939, her Welsh-born grandfather Mac, who was born in 1913, already had six years of naval experience.

She said: “Just seven months into the war, my grandfather and the 130-strong crew of the destroyer HMS Wolverine were scrambled across the North Sea after Hitler and 10,000 Nazi troops swept into Norway.

“When the ship arrived in the spring of 1940, Norway’s ports were in flames. The German air force had inflicted heavy losses and 225,000 Allied forces needed to be evacuated. “A navaln historian told me MMac, who was a radar opeoperator, would have beebeen involved in the last stastage of the campaign at Narvik,N where bombs wouwould have been dropping all arounda him. It would have bbeen like hell.”

Keira wasw gobsmacked when she learned her grandad and his crew helped save the lives of 700 Irish Guards. She said: “I met the grandson of a soldier who was on the Chrobry, which was bombed in August 1940. HMS Wolverine came to its rescue and

Grandad helped to e 700 evacuat the men before he ship sank.. a really was hero