Two of the survivors of the sinking of the destroyer HMS Wakeful in May 1940 have come face-to-face with two reminders of the day they cheated death.

On board Type 42 destroyer HMS Southampton in Portsmouth Naval Base, former Ordinary Seaman Geoff Kester (83) and Jim Kane (85), a wartime regular with the Royal Tank Regiment, were able to examine the Wakeful’s treadplate and badge.

The two artefacts were recovered from the wreck of the ship, 13 miles off Antwerp, in November last year, and are now on display at the Royal Naval Museum in the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth. The wreck of the Wakeful is an official war grave.

“I was very happy to see them, particularly when you consider where they have been for so long,” said Mr Kester. “It was a great surprise to see how well-preserved they are.”

The destroyer was torpedoed in the early hours of May 29 after rescuing about 640 troops from the beaches at Dunkirk. She was on her second trip, having already safely carried around 600 soldiers on a first crossing.

The torpedo broke the destroyer’s back, causing her to sink in 15 seconds and thus consigning hundreds of exhausted troops and matelots to their deaths - just 25 of her ship’s company and a handful of soldiers escaped the carnage.

Her wreck, lying in little more than 50 feet of water off the Belgian coast, posed a danger to shipping until salvage experts last year removed about ten feet of her superstructure without disturbing the remainder of the ship or damaging the integrity of the war grave.

As part of the salvage operation, Wakeful’s badge and nameplate were rescued by divers, and are still in surprisingly good condition, according to Royal Naval Museum Director Campbell McMurray.

“The nameplate is bronze, which is partly why it survived so well,” he said. “We have taken some advice from the Mary Rose Trust on how the condition of both items can be stabilised.

“We were assured that they are in really good condition, and will last.”

Mr Kane could not wait to touch the treadplate as it was unveiled to him in HMS Southampton’s ward room.

“I never thought I would see this,” he said. “I was very lucky. I was taken aboard late at night and ended up in a hold at the rear of the ship.

“I was sleeping when we were hit by the torpedo. There was a huge explosion, the single light bulb went out, and everything around us was smashed.”

Trapped by the leg, Mr Kane was freed when the ship rolled and he ended up clinging to the rails, before eventually being rescued by a whaler from HMS Grafton (herself subsequently hit and badly damaged by a torpedo) and then transferred to a cross-Channel ferry.

“Wakeful sank in a few seconds, and I often wonder how I got out of there,” Mr Kane added.

Mr Kester had a remarkable catalogue of escapes – though his luck turned sour once he returned ashore.

He was initially trapped by his feet after he had jumped over Wakeful’s crippled bridge, but he slid into the water and was picked up by a small vessel, the Comfort.

After he had been aboard for less than an hour, she too was sunk. By now badly injured, Mr Kester, like Mr Kane, was also picked up by Grafton’s whaler, but he was transferred to the Grafton herself.

The warship was then hit by a torpedo, which rendered her screws and rudders useless. As the Grafton was scuttled, Mr Kester — who eventually held the rank of sub lieutenant — was transferred to the destroyer Ivanhoe and ended up in Dover.

“But my bad luck followed me,” he said.

“After three months in hospital, I returned to my parents’ home in Kent. The house was bombed. . .”