In the midst of World War II, a young American soldier fell head over heels in love for an 18-year-old French girl while he was stationed in her small hometown. 

Fast-forward 75 years and KT Robbins, now 97, has finally been reunited with the woman whose picture he has treasured for more than half a century. 

Robbins was a 24-year-old soldier in the US Army when he first laid eyes on Jeannine Ganaye, now 92, in the northeastern French town of Briey in 1944.  

Robbins had been looking for someone to wash his clothes, and her mother agreed to help.  

The pair quickly fell in love but, two months later, Robbins was told he had to quickly leave the village and head to the Eastern Front to fight against the Axis Powers. 

'I told her maybe I'll come back and take you, but it did not happen like that,' Robbins told French television channel France 2.  

'When he left in the truck I cried, of course, I was very sad,' added Jeannine, whose last name is now Pierson. 'I wish, after the war, he hadn't returned to America.'