Latest news with #WorldWarTwo.Mr
BBC News
11-04-2025
- BBC News
US WW2 fighter pilot takes to skies at Duxford in Mustang
A World War Two American fighter pilot has been surprised with a flight in a Mustang aeroplane 80 years to the day after he was shot Peterburs was escorting United States Air Force bombers over Germany on 10 April 1945 when he was forced to bail out of his damaged plane and was unexpected flight in the Mustang was organised by King's Cliffe Airfield Museum, in Cambridgeshire, after it heard the 100-year-old planned a visit to the former RAF Peterburs said it was "beyond my wildest dreams to have this opportunity to fly over England and remember the days past". Mr Peterburs was stationed at RAF King's Cliffe with the 55th Squadron of the 20th Fighter Group after he arrived in the UK in December Cliffe Air Museum arranged the flight with professional display pilot Isabel Rutland, flying from the Imperial War Museum airfield at Duxford, took him up in a Mustang similar to the one he flew in World War Peterburs had fond memories of the combat plane, saying: "It was a beautiful aircraft, I used to say it was like a suit of armour putting it on - it just fit you like a glove." By the time he was shot down, the 20-year-old was flying his 49th mission. "I landed, looked around and there was just farmland with about 20 German civilians working in the field - they came running at me - and then I heard a rumbling noise and up came a Luftwaffe [German air force] sergeant on a motor cycle who fired two shots in the air and said I was his prisoner," he said. After a few "hairy adventures" - including interrogation by Gestapo officers and sharing an air raid shelter Luftwaffe airmen during RAF raids - he managed to escape from a prisoner of war camp. "I headed towards Berlin and came across a Russian tank column, so fought with them up from Berlin to Wittenberg on the River Elbe, and a US army patrol came along and retrieved me - I was repatriated after that," Mr Peterburs said. The veteran said he enjoyed the memories sparked by his return to RAF King's Cliffe: "When I was there, it was a hustling, bustling community of people, things were going on all the time, there was a lot of joy and fun."He continued his career in the airforce, retiring as a colonel in 1979. "A lot of young men were not able to live the life I've lived," Mr Peterburs said. "I'm truly grateful that people are remembering the sacrifices that were made during the war." Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
30-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Why the Grand National was held at Gatwick
A racecourse which hosted the Grand National three times is long-forgotten, and now overshadowed by the UK's second largest airport which was built on the site. Gatwick Airport's South Terminal now stands on the same spot as Gatwick racecourse which hosted its first race in 1891 on the Surrey/West Sussex border. Doug Cox, from Horley Local History Society, said: "On a race day it would have been quite noisy."The horses would have come off the train at Horley and trotted off down the road to what is now the south-east of Gatwick railway station." From the early 1800s horse racing had gained popularity as a leisure pursuit for all classes of society, and many new courses were owners of the site at Croydon formed the Gatwick Race Course Company and bought the existing Gatwick estate and manor house in first race meeting took place on 7 October Cox said: "The race course was a large circular track. "There was even an 18-hole golf course." The Gatwick course became the centre of the racing calendar for three wartime years between 1916 and 1918 when it hosted the Grand National. Paul Castle, from Crawley Museum, explained: "Everything came to a halt during World War One. "Aintree was requisitioned by the war office and another venue needed to be found."That was Gatwick racecourse for three years." The winner of that last Gatwick Grand National was Ernest Piggott, the grandfather of famous jockey Lester Piggott. Gatwick racecourse may have had its heyday during World War One but its demise came about with World War Castle said: "The RAF requisitioned the whole area and it became an RAF station." After the war the racecourse's owners hoped horses would be able to Gatwick closed permanently in 1950, opening its doors as an international airport eight years later. "Gatwick racecourse is often overlooked from the record books," Mr Castle said. The ornate bandstand from the racecourse was moved to Crawley Memorial Gardens and is one of the last reminders of an often-forgotten piece of racing history.
BBC News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Ukrainians in Huddersfield on their hopes for peace
Ukrainians in Yorkshire have spoken of their hopes that their home country may finally enjoy peace after three years of Ukraine and US are due to meet for peace talks in Saudi Arabia today and the US will also negotiate with Muzyka, 22, is now studying psychology and counselling at the University of Huddersfield after fleeing Dnipro in said she has "faith" that Ukraine will eventually flourish and hopes to return to live there one day. Miss Muzyka was forced to leave her family, including her six-year-old brother, when war broke out in 2022 and she fled to Turkey with her aunt and then saw adverts for a sponsorship scheme in the UK and described the search for a host as "a bit like Airbnb"."I didn't care which city I went to, and talked to a lady with no picture of her house. I thought it didn't matter what the place looks like as I needed a place to stay."Her sponsor was Lainey Wilson and she moved into her Huddersfield home. Around 220,000 of the six million Ukrainians who fled abroad have been given sanctuary in the Miss Muzyka left her parents behind and still misses them and her brother, now aged visit them, she has to fly to Poland and then take a 24-hour coach journey to said while travelling she could see the "devastation" caused by the fighting and had had to go into her brother's school's bomb shelter when a siren mother also suffered from panic attacks due to the stress of the war. In recent weeks there has been speculation around a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. The latest talks come as the US attempts to broker peace between the two nations. Also part of the Ukrainian community in Huddersfield is Petro Dorotiak, whose father moved to the town after being displaced during World War Dorotiak has had lifelong involvement with the UK's Ukrainian diaspora and has made frequent visits to the country to deliver said he was pessimistic about the country's "difficult" situation and thought things were "moving in the wrong direction".He said he had concerns about talks between the US and Russia that did not involve "Ukraine at the table" and sounded more like a "business deal"."Trump is a businessman who made money. It looks like a business deal. We know what Putin wants - he wants land, he wants Ukraine."Trump is trying to recover money and trying to get a minerals deal." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
24-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Life-size Lenin portrait among Soviet Union art up for auction
A life-size portrait of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin and other paintings from the former state are going up for as "monumental", they will be up for sale at Wotton Auction Rooms in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire on Tuesday and Wednesday after the collection was revealed in the auction house's managing director, Joseph Trinder said the paintings, which date from the 1920s to the early 1990s, "were essentially works of propaganda".The artworks are being auctioned as separate lots with estimates starting at hundreds of pounds depending on size. As well as the life-size portrait of Lenin, there is a scene of 'Bolsheviks Storming the Winter Palace' in 1917 and a painting of Soviet troops having 'A rest after battle' during World War Trinder explained they came from a "rather remarkable" single-owner collection."They are essentially works of propaganda that were put together to communicate the ideas and principles of the Soviet era and to promote Lenin and his vision," he said. Three of the paintings are from the Socialist Realist School, founded in the 1930s. Mr Trinder said they would have been displayed publicly as "essentially civic works". They were designed to show an audience "the ideals of the communist message".More Soviet Union paintings will also be auctioned in March.
