Tears flowed at the reunion of an ex-RAF airman and the woman who helped smuggle him out of wartime Poland.

Nina Harper, 73, started sobbing as soon as she and 78-year-old Charlie Keen set eyes on each other for the first time in 58 years.

And Charlie admitted to feeling a lump in his throat as they embraced on Monday.

The last time they met, Charlie's RAF Halifax bomber had crashed in German-occupied Poland in 1944.

The crew had to bail out in total darkness.

Some crew members were taken prisoner by the Germans but four were rescued by Polish partisans.

Nina was a 16-year-old member of the Polish resistance.

She acted as a courier and interpreter, helping hand Charlie and three colleagues to Russian partisans, who flew them back to England.

The pair only got back in contact earlier this month, when one of Nina's neighbours placed an advert on Teletext that was spotted by a friend of Charlie.

Charlie is the only surviving member of the four airmen rescued and now lives in Uplands Road, Hollingdean, Brighton.

Nina married an Englishman and lives in Southampton.

She had been encouraged by neighbour Robert Blackmore to try to trace the airmen she helped.

Nina was an active member of the resistance from the age of 11.

Her family had fled to the forests and joined the partisans when her father, a Polish cavalry officer, was put on a Gestapo wanted list.

After the war, Poland's new Soviet-sponsored government awarded Nina the Partisan Cross for heroism. She also received the prestigious Grunwald Berlin medal, dating from 1410.

Her key role was recognised in a biography published last year of one of her seniors, Jozef Rybicki, who spoke highly of her.

Charlie arranged to meet Nina at the Festival Theatre in Chichester.

They swapped memories and photos of their time in Pushcha Polska, an area of south-east Poland that translates as "wild, primitive forest".

Charlie said: "I welled up as soon as I saw Nina. We have spoken a lot about our memories of people we knew in common."

Nina said: "It's been very emotional. We have been crying a lot. I recognised him as soon as I saw him, even the way he walked.

"To see British pilots in the Polish forest was something unusual for us. It was like seeing Martians.

"But I never thought I would see one of them again, after all this time."

Throughout his two-month stay in Poland, Charlie was in fear of being captured or attacked by German troops monitoring the area.

He remembers being woken one morning by machine gunfire from above, which missed his body by inches.

He said: "The Polish partisans lived a very basic life. We had to stay in darkness, eating half-cooked food when we could and sleeping on straw. But I owe this woman, and the Poles, an awful lot. I have thought a lot about how lucky we were to escape."

Others attending the reunion included Charlie's wife Barbara, Nina's son, Alex Major, and Robert Blackmore, who placed the Teletext advertisement.

Nina dabbed at her eyes as the pair finally said their goodbyes, promising to keep in touch and meet up again.