BRITAIN: During the second World War, Wing Cmdr Adrian Warburton flew countless missions over Germany and other Nazi occupied territories to take strategically crucial photographs.
His many reconnaissance sorties helped, among others, to defend Malta, target the Italian navy and support the Allied advance in North Africa.
Warby, as he was known, was born the son of a naval officer in Middlesbrough on March 10th, 1918.
He went to St Edward's School in Oxford, whose other former pupils include fellow second World War airmen Guy Gibson, who won the Victoria Cross for leading the Dam Busters raid on Germany, and Douglas Bader, the RAF pilot who lost both legs in a pre-war accident but later returned to flying and fought in the Battle of Britain.
Warburton was commissioned in the RAF in 1939 and posted to Malta the following year as one of a handful of pilots to provide reconnaissance over the Mediterranean.
His bravery and pictures reached a pinnacle in November 1940 when images taken by him led to an attack which sank an Italian fleet at Taranto - an offensive later described by Winston Churchill as dealing "a crippling blow".
By the beginning of 1944 he had been promoted to wing commander.
His gallantry was recognised by the award of the Distinguished Service Order and Bar and Distinguished Flying Cross and two Bars as well as the American Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded by President Roosevelt himself. The award was inscribed with the words: "This officer has never failed".
On April 12th, 1944, Warburton flew from RAF Mount Farm in Oxfordshire to photograph airfields in Germany.
For almost 60 years he remained lost until inquiries were made by Welsh aviation researcher Frank Dorber, who was inspired by a biography of the pilot.
He matched US missing-in-action reports with German anti-aircraft battery records and narrowed the search area to Egling, a village some 30 miles north-east of Munich, where it was known an Allied aircraft was shot down on April 12th, 1944. - (PA)