WW2 Hurricanes found in Ukraine

Experts dig up parts of 8 legendary British planes in forest

- STEPHEN WHITE

THE remains of eight British Hurricane fighter planes from the Second World War have been found buried in a Ukrainian forest.

The UK sent them to help the Soviet Union after Nazi Germany invaded the country in 1941.

Some Hurricanes were deliberately broken up and buried after the war so the Soviets did not have to pay back the United States, who paid for the planes.

This was the fate of the eight Hurricanes found buried in woodland south of Kyiv - now the capital of independent Ukraine, but until 1991 part of the USSR.

Ukraine is now painstakingly cleaning and repairing the planes, so they can be displayed in their original glory.

They had been stripped of their instruments, radios, machine guns and any useful scrap metal.