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A booklet that charts the remarkable exploits of six Sutton brothers who all served in the Second World War, and survived, has been completed.

’Sutton’s Band Of Brothers – The Warings At War’ has been written, after painstaking research, by Steve Waring, son of one of the men, in what has proved to be a labour of love.

Steve said: "The booklet has created a lot of interest. It seems miraculous that all the brothers survived the war, despite taking part in some of the fiercest battles and enduring the most horrific circumstances imaginable

Now the booklet has been presented to the Sutton Living Memory Group, to be exhibited at its unit at the Idlewells Shopping Centre in Sutton.

Steve Waring (right) presents his booklet, 'Sutton's Band Of Brothers -- The Warings At War', to Darron Ellis, of the Sutton Living Memory Group.

"The plan is that folk pop in to read it and find out how to obtain a copy,” said retired civil servant Steve, 69.

"It’s a 15-minute read, and we’ve already had about 15 copies requested.

"The full story behind my quest for information on the brothers and to find long-lost family members is a tale in itself. But maybe that is for another day!”

Steve’s dad, Ernest, spent three-and-a-half years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp after sustaining bullet wounds, and he helped to build the notorious ‘Death Railway’ at Burma.

The six Waring brothers, pictured with their mother and father, Harry and Eliza Waring, of Sutton in 1941. They are: (from left) Ernest (booklet author Steve's dad), Harry, Jack, Frank, Arthur and Fred.

Four of the brothers, Jack, Arthur, Frank and Harry, were members of the famous ‘Desert Rats’, the nickname for the soldiers who helped defeat Rommel and the Germans in North Africa in battles such as the siege of Tobruk.

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The eldest brother, Fred, did not serve on the frontline but was a member of the Home Guard and helped with tasks such as guarding prisoner-of-war camps at Sutton and Huthwaite.

Another Waring brother, Albert, worked as a full-time air-raid protection warden in Birmingham to help the war effort.

Steve’s booklet reveals how the brothers fared in the war and the careers they pursued in subsequent years.

All were sons of Harry and Eliza Waring, of Percival Crescent in Sutton, and their military service was following a noble family tradition. Harry fought at the Battle Of The Somme in the First World War, while the brothers’ great-great grandad, Thomas Waring, fought at the Battle Of Waterloo in 1815.

As Steve says: “The message seems clear: if you’re getting into a ruck, take a Waring with you!”

Brothers in arms -- new booklet on six Sutton siblings who were all war heroes