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The family of a Second World War veteran who told them he had been a cook during the war were stunned to discover he had been in an elite special forces unit after his death.

Captain Leslie Scott's collection of Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force (SAARF) wings - which until recently were being stored in an attic near York

- are among the most scarce Allied airborne insignia of the war.

Auctioneers have dubbed them 'the stuff of which collectors dreams are made' as the unit was made up of just 360 Allied parachute trained special forces volunteers, many of them German-speaking.

It was created in March 1945 to provide teams to be parachuted behind enemy lines to aid allied PoWs who it was feared were in danger of being massacred in the German camps.

But his family only discovered his amazing military heroics after his death when they came across the wings in a drawer as they were clearing his flat in London after his death at the age of 89 back in 2008.

 

 

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