THE family of an heroic air gunner who died when his Stirling bomber crashed 63 years ago were today watching him finally laid to rest.

Blackburn lad Norman Nuttall died during a raid on Berlin in 1941. But his body, and those of his fellow air crew, were discovered only last year.

The military funeral, attended by Royal Air Force delegates and family members of the dead airmen, comes after months of painstaking excavation by the Dutch army in a field 500 yards from Opmeer.

The Royal Air Force staged a six-month campaign to trace any of Norman's relatives.

But the move looked to be fruitless - until Norman's step brother and cousin came forward just days ago.

Norman, second wireless operator and rear air gunner, was serving with the XV squadron when his loaded bomber was attacked by a German Luftwaffe night-fighter at 10.45pm on a mission from Alconbury, Cambridgeshire in a fleet of 23.

The plane was the first Stirling to crash on Dutch soil.

The pilot was thrown from the wreckage and found soon after but the other six crew members, including a pilot officer and sergeant from New Zealand, had laid undiscovered until recently.

Norman's step brother Kenneth Nuttall, 80, of Cambridge, and his cousin Gordon Smith of London came forward just yesterday.

Kenneth said: "I don't remember much of Norman as I was only 14 but we are completely dumbfounded by the discovery and funeral. I honestly just thought he had jumped out.

"We are both in absolute shock and totally overwhelmed."