A MISSING standard has been discovered in Sussex and returned to the Allied Air Forces Memorial at Elvington near York.

The National Standard of the Air Gunner Association had been lost for more than 10 years, said a spokesman for the Yorkshire Air Museum, where the National Air Gunners Memorial is based.

He said it became lost in about 2003 when association branches began to disband as their members became older, and searches over several years had revealed no clue as to where it was located.

“We received an email out of the blue, telling us that the Standard had been discovered somewhere in the South of England,” said Ian Reed, director of the Museum/Memorial.

“It sounded like a typical wartime censored story, but it has now arrived and is resplendent amongst the unique turrets and artefacts in the Memorial.”

The spokesman said more than 45,000 air gunners flew highly hazardous missions with the Royal Air Force and suffered the highest casualty rates of any single unit in the Second World War.

He said 22,000 were killed in action, with overall casualty rates of almost 60 per cent.