IN May 21, 1945, and a five-man British patrol were closing in on Nazi troops trying to flee from the Allies in northern Germany.

Lt Sgt Patrick Mannion, the leader of the British group operating in Meinstedt, spotted a German soldier running into a bakery.

He fired a warning shot into the air and shouted ‘grab him’ to one of his soldiers, Tyldesley-born Michael Fahy, who raced into the shop and restrained him.

The man Michael captured was Heinrich Himmler, a leading member of the Nazi Party who ran concentration camps.

The genocide commander committed suicide two days after being captured.

Michael died in 1988. His 70-year-old son Brian recalls his dad telling the story at The Punch Bowl pub in Atherton in 1980. Brian said: “He told it quite casually over a drink. It wasn’t until later that he told us it was Himmler he had caught.

“At the time the patrol were not sure who they had arrested. They found out who it was a couple of days later.

“Like a lot of people who came back from the Second World War, what he had seen had shocked him so much and took so much out of him that he did not talk a lot about what he had seen.”

The story featured in a BBC documentary last year, with some scenes filmed at Salford’s Imperial War Museum. Lt Sgt Mannion’s grandson Chris carried out extensive research there to ascertain the full facts.

After returning from the war Michael worked at the Astley Green Colliery and raised a family with his wife Eileen.

They had four children, Brian, Patricia, Sheila and Michael. Brian said: “He was a lovely man. He was quiet natured but very sociable and he never had to shout at us. He was a great man for justice and we knew what was right and wrong with him.

“He used to tell us ‘it is always good to be proper with people’.

“He was pleasant and very well liked in his community.

“Dad was never boastful and he had a great love of life.

“He wasn’t selfish but he thought that life is meant to be savoured and enjoyed every day.

“He had a simple appreciation of being alive because there is so much death.”

Brian has followed his father’s footsteps by having an eventful life, including quitting his career as a Catholic priest after meeting the woman who would become his wife, Margaret.

He was educated at the Sacred Heart school in Hindsford before

joining the Redemptorists priesthood order.

He worked as a priest for 30 years across 10 UK churches and received education in Rome.

Brian met Margaret in 1991 when he was working in Perth.

Their son Michael, named after Brian’s war hero dad, was born the following year.

“What I was missing was a woman in my life,” Brian said.

“I found my freedom when I met Margaret and it was great.

“It was really difficult to leave the priesthood and Michael was seven by the time I was able to completely escape.”

Brian moved to Stirling in Scotland to live with Margaret and forged a new career as a family mediator for 12 years.

Margaret died of a rare lung disease at the age of 47 in 2012 after having a lung transplant three years earlier. Brian retired two years ago.

His favourite pastime has seen him write three books, including two autobiographical titles.

On the One Road tells the story of him leaving priesthood while Finding Maggie explores his life with Margaret. His third book Roll Away the Stone focuses on Lent.

Brian said: “Sometimes I write short essays and poems and send them off to family and friends and anyone in the firing line. I have always liked to write and I think it’s because I liked to preach. I like the opportunity to get up and say something sensible and encouraging to people.”