at an estimated cost of £5 billion a year. those are our top stories this hour. it has just gone 3:30pm. have a very good afternoon. now on bbc news, we were there: episode one. you were shot at, shelled, bombed, mortared. and you had to let the bombs go from the aircraft. how many young people did we actually kill? we looked at the aircraftl

and the whole of the back of it had been shredded with the shell splinters. if the sergeant says "jump", you said, "how high?" we just did whatever we were told to do. in the sand, the only way to survive really seemed to be try and get shelter of some kind. because of the 12 of us, - only eight of us had come back. four of our crews had - gone, including one crew who were on their very first trip. it was a sunday, i was in church with my mother and father. and... ..i remember hearing the bishop, getting up in the pulpit, before his sermon and saying, "we're now at war with germany,"

and i thought, "how exciting!" "gosh, an adventure." and little did i know what was in store for me. our division was put in, told to capture the range of hills to the north of tunisia. it took a month of solid fighting. you were shot at, shelled, bombed, mortared — everything. and you got that dreadful feeling of... ..sickness in your tummy. "oh, god, is this going to be the last time?" sometimes you were lucky. sometimes you weren't. i was lucky. i think, towards the... towards the end — towards the end of april, beginning of may. i think they thought that they were — they really had had it. and... ..they were surrendering

quite a lot. they stopped counterattacking, and i think that was the time they realised that they were on the defeated side. at the time, if you didn't kill that other chap, he killed you. that was — that was it. capture the objective. fight. kill people. awful, isn't it? i mean, i've killed, i've killed my fellow man. i'm not proud of that. when i eventually got into a hospital, i said to the nurse, "can i send a telegram to my mother and father?" and she said, "oh, yes, certainly." i said, "wounded. "bullets, left arm, left leg.

"not serious, should survive." i thought that might amuse them. and it did. i loved the desert. i thought it was absolutely perfect. just something about — like being on the sea in a way. you could go in any direction. it was a great sort of freedom attached. beautiful, smooth, smooth surfaces. sand, and impassable, great, great sand dunes. some of the maps were very, very blank. i mean, i had a big — a chart, they were on naval charts, really, with a lot of latitude

and longitude lines, and in some cases, i had one chart which had just a few little speculative hatch lines on it, and a camel track — and a dotted line across it with what was labelled "suspected camel track". well, i thought david stirling was a first—class man, very — highly intelligent, highly motivated, who actually was a motive power in many ways, in the founding of the sas, who also was a person who managed to recruit about 80 chaps who he thought had the requirements

that he needed. and one of his major requirements was he wanted people who would be able to get on with each other in difficult circumstances. so those early operations were conducted, as far as possible, in great secrecy. we were all brought up to keep the whole thing totally under hat. well, they make very good stories. no denying. refuel your vehicles, mr sadler. we go tonight. get the tents up. stop being too creative. call me mike. but they were all part of the business, really.

you had to put up with it, and it was not something that people were enjoying at the time very often. well, it was exciting to be shooting off at things. yes, i suppose it was. certainly we didn't think of ourselves as war heroes. we were — i don't think we were war heroes. but it's — i think it's a term which is much misused. i went up to newcastle with a friend, and went into the recruiting office. asked the recruiting sergeant if we could join the northumberland fusiliers. i say, i was only an 18—year—old boy. i was scared of my mam and dad, never mind the nazis!

and the ship — i didn't know this at the time, i was down in the hold with everybody else — the ship turned into the mediterranean... ..and the next thing i know, we're inland, in a port. and i found out that it was the port of algiers, in north africa. very scary for an 18—year—old boy who'd never been out of north shields. yeah, but we just got on with it. you know, i mean, if the sergeant says "jump", you said, "how high?" and we just did whatever we were told to do. and that's the easiest way to get on in the army. if the sergeant or the corporal said do it, you do it. a lot of the time i was trained in weapons, but because i had a little bit of a problem with one of my eyes, they thought that a rifle wasn't a good idea for me,

and so they put us on bren guns. in fact, for a period of time in africa... ..i was a twin bren gunner, and that meant that i was sitting on a very small vehicle with two bren guns, pointing backwards, with the convoy was in front, and i was like tail—end tommy, watching for aircraft attacking from behind, or, if i was at the front, then i did the same again. but they thought because of the eye problem, that i was better with the twin bren guns rather than with a rifle. on occasions, as you were driving along particular roads, everything was fine, no problems. and it — it happens just like that. you hear the buzz. you look up. there's somebody throwing bits and pieces at you. so you fire back. do what you're trained to do. turn your machinegun in the direction of whatever it is.

is it attacking you? and let go. yeah, it happened — just like going out in the dry and getting wet. when i was about 19, and i was living near hampton court bridge, a german aircraft came over and lobbed out a bomb and it landed on the other side of the road to me. it was a good job it was a light bomb, because if it had been a heavy one i shouldn't be here talking to you this afternoon. well, if i had an incentive to join the air force, that would have been given greater emphasis. and i thought, "i must go out and join the air force, "and you never know, "i might be able to catch up with this chap." but of course i never did.

"as you've been an instructor, "i take it you'd like to go on instructing?" "no, sir, i want to get to grips with the enemy." and... ..quite unaware that the enemy were only too happy to get to grips with me. anyway, i was then sent to a night fighter training school because i wanted to become a night fighter, and one day... ..somebody came from don bennett's pathfinder group. he came across and said, "if there's anybody here with a thousand flying hours, "i'd like to recruit them into our bomber command

"night flight striking force." and i thought, "well, that's for me." i saw this rather elderly navigator, with a canada flash on his shoulder. he must have been all of 28, so he was quite an old man. "have you crewed up with anybody?" "nope," he said. so, isaid... .."what's your experience? " and he said to me, "well, i've been an instructor, "a navigation instructor at prince edward island." so i said to him, "you've found yourself a pilot." and... ..i think we made a very good team. he was, without question, the very, very best navigator on the squadron, and i was incredibly lucky to have

had him as my navigator. newsreel: ticking over on the tarmac, a line . of new mosquitoes ready- to display their prowess in the air. the mosquito is the great- aeronautical success of the war. british inventive genius has- produced a formidable air weapon, with a reputed speed of over 400mph. here are pictures to carry - in your mind's eye when next you hear of our mosquitoes having been in action. - i think the fifth raid was on berlin. now, berlin was about the most heavily defended city in the whole of the third reich. and if you were going to be shot down, it was most likely to occur there. and i remember on this particular occasion, i allowed myself to be caught by a salvo of anti—aircraft shells, and it lifted up the aircraft,

and it caused both engines to stop. they weren't damaged, it just interfered with the calibration, and after what seemed like six months — i suppose a matter of about 30 seconds — the engines restarted and we found — we worked our way out of berlin. and i turned to him and i said, "doug, you weren't frightened, were you?" and he said, "no, i wasn't frightened. "i was bloody terrified!" the scariest raid, without question, was when i was picked up by a jet fighter. the me 262 had what was known as air—to—air radar, and once he'd got a visual on you, he'd give you a blast of cannon

fire, and you would cease to exist because the fire from an me 262 was formidable. now, in my aircraft, i've got what was known as radar detection equipment. so as soon as he turned on his air—to—air radar, i got a signal in my cockpit. and then i take immediate evasive action, as i did, by dropping down 10,000 feet and altering course. and my navigator was complaining bitterly and saying to me, "well, how do you know? i can't see him." and i said, "and a very good thing, too, _ "because if you could see him, he could see us, "and we'd be dead. "so i can't afford for you to be wrong." and i dodged in and out of the sky, and all over the place, and eventually i took him down low. because when you get down low, jet aircraft consume large quantities of fuel.

and i knew this chap only had 45 minutes from the time that he took off to the time that he landed back at base. and i thought, "sooner or later he'll have to pack it in." so he went home, and i lost him. i was working one day in darlington and i thought, "oh, to pot with this." and i walked across the road to an raf recruiting office. and i said, "i'd like to join the raf, please." the chap said, "very good, sir. "come on in and take all your details." and that was it. in a bomber then —

and this was in a halifax bomber — you'd have seven people. a pilot, a navigator, a bomb aimer, a radio operator, two gunners and a flight engineer. and all the lads that i were with were all canadians. and really, you did have to look after each other and look after yourselves. and we managed to get through 31 operations in bomber command. as the flight engineer, you had to make sure that, mechanically, everything on the aircraft worked perfectly. i knew i had to act as second pilot.

i'd take off here, from leeming. we'd go on a bombing raid over germany, and you'd let the bombs go from the aircraft. and you could see these bombs exploding on german soil, and the number of people being killed. and i used to think about it. you knew it was happening. but you tried to forget it, that you were bombing... ..civilians. it's a funny feeling, you know, to be involved in war and to be killing people, and knowing you're killing people. and also thinking — not knowing — but thinking that there was a reason, and a right in doing it.

but since then, i've realised that there wasn't a right and there never will be a right for people to fight each other. never, ever. and the thing is, you can't forget. you can't change. they're just there. in your stack of memories. the flight engineer's position was inside the stirling, out of sight almost, and i couldn't see out, and i was objecting to this in my letters home. i've still got all my letters. my mother collected all my letters, they're still there. and i was complaining about the fact i may not be able to see anything like a young lad, as i was _

our very first mission was to a place called salbris... ..in the middle of france. it was a big ammunition dump and factory. it had been french, but taken over by the germans. i was at the front of the aircraft. i happened to look up, and there was a little flicker of light, and i shouted, "combat, starter, brow up," which meant there was a combat between a fighter and a lancaster. couldn't see it, but it was up there somewhere. so, "right, boys, keep your eyes skinned." the gunners went... he whistles briefly the mid upper gun especially went whizzing, tacked it round and focused on it, and see if he could see something. and it was just like that. we came back, we assembled in the dining hall. four empty tables.

because, of the 12 of us, only eight of us had come back. newsreel: 20,000 tons of bombs dropped in the 24 hours _ preceding the landings. the softening up of the german defences along a broad - stretch of coast... we'd just got off about three o'clock in the morning, and it was quite a normal day. nobody told us it was invasion day. 0ur target was the place where the americans were landing, and ourjob was to bomb that bit, to help the chaps on the ground. and as we turned away, we just happened to notice in the distance four little planes, german fighters. focke—wulfs. the best of them, fastest of them. and my rear gunner, wally, was shouting, "get into the cloud," because there was a sort of cloud base. it wasn't very thick, but we had been told to stay above,

but he was shouting, "get into the cloud." and, my word, we got into the cloud. in bomber command, the kill rate was almost 50%, plus all the wounded and all the rest of it. but when i signed on, i didn't realise i was almost... ..signing my life away!

hello, in many parts of the uk, cloud amounts have been increasing, signalling a change for the rest of the weekend with some warmer, wetter and windier weather on the way, thanks to a weather system that contains the remnants of what was hurricane nigel. certainly not a hurricane nigel. certainly not a hurricane any more, but providing an

injection tropical moisture. some very heavy rain across the western areas as we head through tonight, and further pulses of rain descending to the west of wales later. particularly windy on the coast, and much milder than last night. by the end of the night, we will be between ten and 16 degrees. sunday morning starting on a mild note, but with low pressure firmly in charge. a couple of different frontal systems that will provide some outbreaks of very heavy rain. this rain tending to affect western and northern parts of the country, so western england, wales, northern ireland, western scotland seeing some outbreaks of rain, and further south and is, more in the way of dry weather, with some spells of sunshine, and with the somebody wins it will be a pretty warm in the south—east corner. large swathes of england and wales up to 20 or 21 degrees, but even further north could see 18, 19, 20 across northern parts of scotland. as we head every sunday evening, this band of very

heavy squally rain pushing across south—west england and wales, and northern england very wet for a time in that rain, and perhaps enough rain for some flooding and destruction. gusts of wind of 50 or 60 mph. through sunday night into monday, that frontal system sweeps away eastwards, but low pressure will still be firmly in charge of our weather, so for monday, they will be some spells of sunshine, and i think parts of england and wales will stay dry, but northern ireland and scotland will see some pretty hefty showers, staying quite windy, with temperatures broadly above the norm for the time of year. as we head towards the middle part of the week, we will have to keep a close eye on this one, a developing area of low pressure, with huge uncertainty about just how of low pressure, with huge uncertainty aboutjust how deep this look might become exactly where it will move across the uk. at the chance for some very heavy rain and possibly some very strong winds across the middle part of the week, and broadly speaking, a and unsettled week ahead. —— a very

unsettled week ahead. —— a very unsettled week ahead. —— a very unsettled week ahead.

live from london. this is bbc news. a missile strike on russia's black sea fleet headquarters in occupied crimea. ukraine's military intelligence chief claims russian commanders are among those injured. separatists in nagono—karabakh give up their weapons — as humanitarian aid begins to reach the thousands stuck in the enclave. in the uk — borisjohnson urges the government not to scale back plans to build the hs2 high speed rail link, amid speculation part of the route could be axed. and i am at the liberal democrats conference in bournemouth where the party has made a major pledge to try

to win over new parents. hello, i'm rich preston. ukraine says russian commanders were among those injured in friday's missile strikes on the headquarters of russia's black sea fleet in occupied crimea. the building in sevastopol appears to have been hit by at least two missiles, causing extensive damage. there are reports that the missiles used were storm shadow missiles — supplied by britain and france. it comes as reports in us media suggest america is planning to give ukraine more advanced, longer—range missiles to help with its ongoing counteroffensive against russia. i spoke to dr kirill shamiev, who is a russian political scientist and a visiting fellow with the wider europe programme at the european council on foreign relations. if the claims that the attack has resulted in the death of senior russian officers,

that would be a significant blow