The son of a Royal Navy officer who was imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp has described a flag signed by his father as a "piece of history".

Richard Wood from Fordingbridge, Hampshire, spotted his father's name, also Richard, on the union flag when it was featured in a recent BBC TV news report.

He had served on HMS Exeter, which was sunk in the Java Sea, before being imprisoned by the Japanese in Indonesia.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth allowed Mr Wood access to see the flag and is looking to trace family members of other men who signed it.

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On a lush north Queensland cattle property in April 1942, a strange shape emerging from the clouds caught a woman's eye as she hung up the washing.

A mushroom-shaped cloth attached to a glittering figure was descending from the low-lying cloud cover, the parachutist's feet furiously steering away from the farmhouse. 

Eyewitnesses quickly mounted their horses and rode to the landing site, but the shadowy figure had vanished.

It is a tale that seems almost fictional, one bound to happen far from Australia's shores.

But Australian historian Ray Holyoak from James Cook University has uncovered radar records, police reports and eyewitness accounts revealing evidence of a concerted foreign espionage effort in wartime northern Australia.

The last European airborne operation of World War Two was "testament to the skills of the RAF crews" based at Essex and Suffolk airfields, according to a local historian.

British-led French SAS soldiers were dropped into the German-occupied eastern Netherlands on 7 and 8 April 1945, suffering 18% casualties in fierce fighting.

The men were tasked with creating mayhem until the First Canadian Army pushed north to meet them and liberate the last part of the country under occupation.

RAF Rivenhall expert Chris Bullock said Operation Amherst was the first time parachutists were dropped above cloud cover.

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Bill Coyle and Helen Richardson wrote over 200 letters back and forth after they went on a blind date. Now, their grandson is reading each one on TikTok, and it will melt your heart.

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https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/video/world-war-ii-love-story-movie-120329635