Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn has become the oldest living artist to make it into the top 20 of the UK albums chart.

Dame Vera, who kept up the spirits of millions with her songs and personality during the darkest days of the Second World War, entered the album chart at number 20, at the age of 92.

Her album, We'll Meet Again - The Very Best of Vera Lynn, returned her to the charts almost six decades after she topped them in the 1950s.

It overtook those of comparative spring chickens U2, the Stone Roses, Green Day and Eminem.

Dame Vera said: “I am extremely excited and delighted to be back in the charts after all these years.”

The album was released to coincide with this week's 70-year anniversary of the declaration of war, which falls this Thursday.

A spokeswoman for her record company Decca said: “She has proven that music of this vintage and significance can still resonate with the British public.”

The album features 24 songs from Dame Vera's golden years, including Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart, which was a number one hit in the US in 1952.

Dame Vera was born on March 20, 1917 in London and her singing career was already flourishing when war broke out in 1939.

She was awarded the title Forces Sweetheart following a poll in the Daily Express, and travelled thousands of miles - often at great personal risk - to entertain the troops.

She also had a BBC radio show on which she performed songs such as We'll Meet Again, I'll Be Seeing You, Wishing, and If Only I Had Wings.

In the singles chart, Dizzee Rascal notched up his third number one with Holiday, which shot straight to the top of the chart.

The high-tempo summertime hit knocked French DJ David Guetta off the top spot, whose single Sexy Chick, featuring Akon, slid down to number two.

Dizzee's second number one single, Bonkers, also rose nine places to 30.

Arctic Monkeys went straight to number one in the albums chart with their new release Humbug, while the day after what would have been his 51st birthday, Michael Jackson still had four albums in the chart.

His 'best of' collection The Essential dropped two places to number eight, while Bad, Thriller and The Very Best of Michael Jackson & Jackson Five clung on at numbers 27, 31 and 34 respectively.