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 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 in land, 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 taking 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 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? " and i rather foolishly said, "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. 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 prowessl in the air. the mosquito is the great aeronautical success - of the war. british inventive genius has produced a formidable air. weapon, with a reputedj speed of over 400mph. here are pictures to carry - in your mind's eye when next you hear about 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, itjust 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, we 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 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 focus 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. wednesday brought the first named storm of the autumn. storm agnes, which did most of its developing out in the atlantic, so it was a well—formed storm by the time it made our shores, bringing with it gales and severe gale—force winds along with a lot of heavy rain, so the two combined giving those hazardous travel conditions, and still pushing northwards during the night on wednesday into thursday. a little ridge of high pressure, but another area of low pressure with some heavy rain coming back in during the second part of thursday. ahead of that, some cloudiness in the morning and some patches of rain but hopefully the cloud breaking up and a lot of dry and bright weather across central and eastern areas, while further west, we've got rain coming up from the south and rain coming in from the west. not as windy as wednesday away from the northern isles, but still a blustery day, particularly near the showers and still quite pleasantly warm for late september, temperatures above the average, possibly 19—20 celsius in southern and eastern areas. and then, through the night, we get some more heavy, potentially thundery rain crossing into southern areas, that weather front with us in the north. a rash of showers following behind and a slightly fresher night, particularly for northern ireland, scotland, northern england. in the south, with rain band close by, it'll still be quite mild. and it's still close by friday morning before the ridge of high pressure builds in behind it, so we could wake to some rain across southern areas, and we will have some showers across the far north and west of scotland throughout the day, one or two elsewhere in northwestern parts, but also a lot of dry and bright weather in between with some sunshine which, again, will lift our temperatures with the wind starting to ease a little, into the high teens and possibly 20 celsius. this is why — a ridge of high pressure, which brings us to the start of the weekend. i think it'll be quite a cool start on saturday morning, 5s and 6s, close to ground frost levels in the north. patchy mist and patchy fog at this time of year takes till mid—morning to clear. once it does so, then we've got a decent day in terms of dry, bright, quite sunny weather, which should hang on in central and eastern areas, but we do get more rain back into northern ireland, western scotland, northwest england as we head through the afternoon and towards evening. but ahead of that, high teens, the mid—teens in the north. so that band of rain pushes its way through, possibly some strong winds as well through saturday night into sunday. clearing away and then we've got showers following on behind, so it does look as if, again, there'll be quite a good deal of usable weather on sunday. quite a number of showers in the north and the front in the south may well drag its heels and that cloud take a time to clear, but look at the temperatures. the winds are lighter, still relatively warm air and we're heading into the start of october. temperatures look as if they'll still get into the low 20s. that low pressure is around monday, tuesday. it may become slow—moving, the weather front, in the south but then high pressure builds and moves and then drifts its way eastwards, so it's just visiting, but as it does, so bringing a good deal of dry weather towards the south but it does then allow the unsettled low pressure to come back into the north and west. but what's interesting is, as it does move in, it'll allow the temperatures by day to risejust a little bit, so it may well be the start of october but it does still look as if be achieving temperatures above the seasonal average, and it's already looking like it could be close to a record—breaking warm septemberfor some parts of england. as ever, we'll keep you posted. warnings online. live from simi valley, california, this is a bbc news special on the 2nd republican presidential debate. seven candidates have spent the past two hours making the case that they should be the republican nominee for president. notably absent was party front—runner donald trump. he's been in michigan, speaking to auto workers there. hello, i'm caitriona perry outside the ronald reagan republican library in california. the building behind me has been playing host to the second republican presidential debate. seven candidates took the stage. that's one fewer than last time, when the party gathered in milwaukee. the group fielded questions on topics like education, inflation, immigration and competition from china,

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