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Living History - RAF hero reveals an unlikely friendship with the U-Boat captian he sunk!
Former RAF Navigator Des Curtis(94) from Poole in Dorset - Won his DFC after sinking a German U-Boat off St Nazaire in March 1944, but later became a lifelong friend of its Captain Raimond Teisler.
An RAF hero has told of how he memorably sunk a German U-Boat 75 years ago - then years later became unlikely friends with its commander.
Flight Lieutenant Des Curtis was just 20 years old when he took part in the daring attack on U-976 south west of St Nazaire on the Atlantic coast of France on March 25, 1944.
He was the navigator in a Mosquito armed with a 6-pounder gun which took out the submarine while evading anti-aircraft fire from minesweepers and shelling from the shore batteries.
Four of the U-Boat's 53 man crew were killed in the attack which was later immortalised on the front page of the boy's own adventure magazine 'Victor'.
Yet, remarkably, almost 50 years later, Flt Lt Curtis became pen pals with the U-976's Kommandant Raimond Teisler.
They eventually met up in Germany, with Raimond also visiting Flt Lt Curtis in England before his death five years ago.