My friend Ted West, who has died aged 100, was one of the few Britons – possibly even the only one – to have served in the US Air Force during the second world war.
Ted had moved from his native Yorkshire to the US at the age of eight, and in 1943, as a 21-year-old, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps. After initial training he was assigned to the 8th Air Force, 351st Bomb Group, and was sent to Britain to be stationed at Polebrook airfield in Northamptonshire.
