One of the last surviving members of a legendary unit of female aircraft plotters who identified enemy targets in World War II has taken to the skies in a glider – aged 99.

Decorated veteran Kate Orchard served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in India between 1941 and 1945.

She joined the corps aged 20 and worked as a ‘plotter’ in Madras, India, to identify the known locations of enemy aircraft.

Allied Command could then send warnings of potential targets to the Royal Air Force (RAF) to shoot down.

She achieved the rank of Warrant Officer First Class and won both the Service and India Service medals.

Recalling her role in the military, she said: “I wanted to do something for my country, which we all wanted to do during the war.

“There was a large grid in this room with a map of India.

“As the messages came through you had to identify if it was hostile or friendly.

“The enemy was the Japanese aircraft. They were the ones we were plotting on the big grid.

“It saved a lot of lives, otherwise we would have been bombed.”

Kate, who has three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, took to the skies to raise money for Help for Heroes, on Monday, April 18.

The widow, of Camborne, Cornwall, took off from Seahawk Gliding Club, at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, which is near the town of Helston, in Cornwall, in the UK.

She said: “I believe passionately that it’s very important that all ex-military personnel are looked after.

”Especially those unfortunate enough to have physical or psychological injuries.”

Kate was cheered on by her proud son Ben, 72, who watched from the ground.

He said: “She reacts to it positively. She always wants to do adventurous things, she took to it with great enthusiasm and loved it.

“She’s been in many aircraft many times, but this is her third glider flight. The last was three years ago. And the first was when she was 90.

“She was a plotter. Plotting aircraft as they flew in, they were either friend or foe, using the Dowding system.

“She just does things, she’s a bit mad anyhow. I just admire her for her spirit.

“She will do anything for anyone. It’s all for a good cause, for Help the Heroes.”

Kate was born into a large Anglo-Indian family with her father working as a chief telegraph inspector on the Indian railways.

She later worked for the Air Defence Centre, Number 5 Filter Room, alongside both the RAF and the Indian Air Force.

She worked as a plotter and as a teller on 24-hour watches, identifying aircraft targets and sending signals to the air warning systems.

She proudly wears her 1939-45 Service and India Service Medals when attending VE Day and VJ Day Remembrance Day services.

Kate recently attended the annual Battle of Britain Sunday service at Westminster Abbey, which was attended by Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, and the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

She even enjoyed a friendly chat with their Royal Highnesses at a reception following the event.

A spokesman for Help for Heroes said: “Kate is a truly amazing lady, full of spirit.

”But I suppose we should expect nothing less of the generation that served us so well during our darkest days.

“And for her to do this to help support the service personnel who followed in her footsteps is a wonderful gesture.”

To donate to Kate’s efforts and help support veterans, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Kate-Orchard.

The brain can suppress unwanted memories – and sounds an ‘alarm’ if one slips through the net, according to a new study.

A region dubbed the ACC can identify intrusive thoughts and call for backup to help suppress them, say scientists.

While people enjoy reminiscing about the good times, there are some memories that are best forgotten.

This is easier said than done, however, and people often find themselves thinking unwanted thoughts.

Now Cambridge University researchers have discovered the brain has an inbuilt memory blocker.

Study author Dr. Maité García said: “When people suppress unwanted memories the ACC is among the regions more active, but its contribution to inhibitory control over memory remains undefined.

“Our findings reveal a central role of ACC in triggering inhibitory control that causes motivated forgetting.”

The brain activity of 24 participants was measured by the researchers using EEG and fMRI scans while they completed a memory test.

During the exercise, people were asked to memorize word pairings like “gate and train” which had been selected from the Thesaurus of Modern Chinese.

They were then shown one of the words and asked to recall its pairing or focus on it without thinking about the other word.

Activity spiked in part of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) when participants tried to suppress their memory during the first 500 milliseconds of the task.

The ACC then relayed this information to another part of the brain dubbed the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

This area then suppressed activity in a third region known as the hippocampus, which is known to play an important role in helping people recall memories.

Activity levels in the ACC and DLPFC remained low for the rest of the trial, suggesting their intervention had been successful in blocking out the memory.

The brain’s memory blocking talents could extend even further to helping people forget, according to the researchers.

Dr. García said: “Importantly, our results suggest that proactive control did not simply prevent retrieval but also facilitated forgetting.”

If the unwanted memory was not stopped early enough, the ACC sounded the alarm, increasing its activity to signal the DLPFC to get involved, the researchers found.

Dr. García said: “In summary, this study provides evidence that theta mechanisms in ACC are key to triggering inhibitory control by DLPFC during motivated forgetting.

“These mechanisms can be proactively engaged by external warning stimuli, helping to rapidly preempt unwanted thoughts.”

The findings were published in the journal JNeurosci.

BRISTOL, England — The estate of Star Wars ‘Boba Fett’ actor Jeremy Bulloch is to be sold at auction – including his own life-size toy.

Over 1,000 unique items of memorabilia from the actor’s collection such as scripts and autographs will be available to buy on May 4th – International ‘Star Wars Day’.

Jeremy played villainous Bounty Hunter Boba Fett in both The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return Of The Jedi (1983).

Despite being on screen for mere minutes the character has become one of the best-loved and most recognisable in the franchise.

The auction follows Bulloch’s death in 2020 from complications relating to Parkinson’s disease which he had suffered from for many years.

A portion of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to Parkinson’s UK.

The collection has been amassed over the actor’s lifetime of attending conventions and meeting excited fans.

His wife, Maureen Bulloch, said: “During the twenty or so years that Jeremy attended conventions in relation to his role as Boba Fett from the Star Wars films, he acquired a large collection of memorabilia.

“He was also given items made by fans as well as a lot of artwork, some of it by well-known artists.

“Jeremy loved and appreciated every single item and proudly displayed them in his office.

“We, as his family, would now like to offer some of this memorabilia for fans to enjoy. May The Force Be With You.

The sale, starting at noon on 4th May, is being held by East Bristol Auctions.

Some of the highlights from the collection include a Boba Fett statue (£8,000-£12,000) modelled on Bulloch in the 1990s and stored in his attic for 30 years.

There is also unseen footage from Return of the Jedi (£3,000-£5,000) showing early Ewok test film.

An autographed picture by Princess Leia actress Carrie Fisher (£500-£800) bearing a totally unique dedication is also included, along with Bulloch’s script from Revenge of the Sith (£1,500-£2,500)

A Boba Fett helmet (£600-£800) given to Bulloch in the 1990s will also go on sale, along with autographs from co-stars such as Mark Hamill and Dave Prowse.

Auctioneer Andrew Stowe said: “Jeremy was quite clearly an avid collector – he didn’t just star in the films, he enjoyed them as much as any other fan.

“Not only that but he was regarded as one of the most approachable and friendly actors, so fans adored him – and he amassed many gifts wherever he appeared.

“His collection is remarkable, and completely unique!”

The statue was created in the late 1990s and Bulloch actually spent several weeks modelling and being cast for the piece.

Just 500 were made and issued by a company called Rubies and were sent for display in restaurants and shops.

Bulloch’s half-brother was Star Wars producer Robert Watts and he shot the Ewok footage in November 1981 in North Carolina.

It is believed to be unseen ‘newly discovered’ footage.

Watts gifted the two reels to Bulloch and they remained in his safe storage for many years – unseen.

Carrie’s autograph is dedicated ‘’Jeremy – thanks for the nite of hot monkey love – Carrie Fisher.’

The unusual dedication relates to an unknown joke between the two and is ‘completely unique’.

The replica Boba Fett Helmet presented to Bulloch in the 1990s. Bulloch wore the helmet for interviews and videos taken in his home.

It was his go-to helmet for videos on his website, and it can be seen in dozens of interviews and photographs.

The full catalogue can be viewed online at bid.eastbristol.co.uk.

A camouflage artist who paints himself to fit in perfectly in any environment is baffling fans in China.

The artist – named only as Wang in Chinese media – spends up to three hours covering himself in paint to match his surroundings.

In one display – at a park in the city of Jinan, the capital of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong on April 11 – he transformed himself to blend into a field of multi-colored flowers.

In another video, Wang paints himself as part of a tree trunk surrounded by golden leaves so perfectly he turns virtually invisible when he stands still.

In the video, he said: “Look, everyone, here is a new camouflage cloth, and it matches the color of the surrounding environment really well. I stand here motionless, simply a fake image over the real.”

Other films show Yang perfectly camouflaged inside a restaurant with customers passing by without even noticing him.

He had even promised to pay for the first person to see him when passing by, saying: “Today’s meal is paid by me! The only condition is that you have to find me. My invisible spot is very tricky from the front.”

He later added that he had paid today’s big winner’s meal cost of 328 yuan (30 GBP).

Another shows him posing on top of a modernist skyscraper as part of a flower garland, standing on a glass pane over a sheer drop below.

He seems nervous about heights but continues nevertheless, saying: “We are at 388 meters [1,272 feet]. It is too high here, even for me. Are we sure to want even to start to draw here?”

Not everyone, though, is a fan – and one video shows him being thrown out of a building by security guards, although they later repent and let him in when they see his project to blend in from the outside.

The artist insists he does all the artwork himself, using a simple mobile phone image to see constantly how the image is taking place and how the camouflage is working!

He proudly showed off one video for example where he is on a pathway through fields of flowers and boasted: ”Many friends came and didn’t find me until they moved to my side.”

But he was spotted by the female security who grabs the artist by the ear to haul him out of the flowerbeds as can be seen in the video.