A search is being made by the Ministry of Defence for relatives of two soldiers from Bradford and Keighley so their personal items seized by the German during World War Two can be returned.

For more than 50 years the dust-covered Army pay books of Private John Hannon, of Bradford, and Private Frank Heaton, of Keighley, languished in the archives of the Russian Army.

Mary Hurt, head of the MoD's main archive in Middlesex, said the brown booklets were part of pile of wartime documents, medals and other personal possessions seized by the Germans in 1940.

They were then taken by the Russian Army when it occupied Berlin and were only handed over to Foreign Secretary Robin Cook after lengthy negotiations.

Ms Hurt said the MoD began to trace the families of the 79 people whose items the Russian had returned in 1997 using photocopies of the documents.

But her department had "hit a brick wall" with 24 including the two from the Bradford district who served with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

She said: "Firstly we gave an undertaking to the Russians that these items wouldn't just be left in a dusty archive. Secondly it gives relatives some information about those lost chapters in their loved-one's lives. And finally under the Geneva Convention they should be returned, so we have to honour that."

Ms Hurt said once all the possessions were returned to relatives who could provide a declaration of kinship they would be invited to a party in the Imperial War Museum on Tuesday, November 7. She said Private Hannon was born on August 2, 1905 in Marmion Avenue, Fairweather Green, and left the army in 1946. Private Heaton, of Barn Street, Park Lane, Keighley left the army in 1945 to live with his wife Margaret. He was born on January 25, 1910 and had a son Robert born on December 26, 1937.

David Harrap, of Duke of Wellington's regiment, said: "We did try to find something on the men but I'm afraid we couldn't."

Anyone who can help should contact Ms Hurt on 0208 573 3831.