The BBC is setting up a Friends Reunited-style website for veterans of the second world war.

The site will form part of the corporation's plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings next year.

War veterans will be asked to share their experiences on the website as a memorial to Britain's war heroes.

The BBC hopes to collect testimonies from members of every British army unit that served during the conflict. Users will be able to look up their unit and add their own memories on the site.

"The idea for this came from the realisation that as the survivors of the second world war get ever fewer, there is a great need for their children and grandchildren to find out what they did, where they served and what really happened to them," a BBC spokesman said.

"As more and more individual stories are added to the site it will grow organically to flesh out the bare bones of the official record and create a unique history of the nation at war.

"It will also provide a vast learning resource through which we can learn about world war two from those who experienced it first hand," he added.

As well as recording the experiences of soldiers, members of the Home Guard will be asked to contribute along with evacuees and civilians on the home front.

Staff in libraries, as well as the Imperial War Museum, will be trained to help elderly veterans use the website.