THE nephew of a Canadian war hero has flown across the Atlantic to RAF Digby to pay a final tribute to his uncle.

Bruce Petersen, accompanied by his son Tom Petersen, flew over from Canada to pay his respects to his uncle, Norman Petersen, at a special Canadian memorial day at RAF Digby.

Bruce Petersen, left, and Gerald Carter meet for the first time since the plane crash.

Norman Petersen joined the Canadian Air Force in 1935, when he was 22. He was posted to RAF Digby at the end of June 1941.

However, on September 2, 1941, Norman Petersen was killed, alongside his crewman Pilot Officer Slater, when their Beaufighter aircraft crashed near Metheringham.

Bruce and Tom Petersen flew to Lincolnshire this week to attend the National Canada Day tribute and honour their late uncle and great-uncle.

The wreath-laying formed part of a special ceremony, held yesterday at RAF Digby, to commemorate the support Lincolnshire received from the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.

Bruce Petersen explained the importance of the visit to Digby for his family.

"Norm was my father's brother and the two of them were all I ever knew of family," he said.

"I was six when he came over to Lincolnshire and seven when he died in the crash.

"As a youngster, he used to buy me presents for birthdays and Christmas, and they always had a military background.

"These are mementoes I have to remind me of my uncle."

At the ceremony, Bruce and Tom Petersen were also introduced to Gerald Carter, who lived at the site where Norman Petersen crashed nearly 69-years-ago.

Mr Carter was 13 when the crash occurred, which saw an aircraft propeller smash through his roof.

Tom Petersen explained how the two came to meet.

"I've been searching the Lincolnshire area to find out more about my great-uncle and found a Metheringham website," he said.

"Gerald had posted a comment about a Beaufighter crash from 1941 and I contacted the website to see if I could get his e-mail address directly.

"We've been e-mailing since December and met for the first time on Wednesday.

"It's been exciting to be here. It's like a piece of the puzzle we never had before, and it's exciting to get closer and closer to finding out what happened."

The event is one of a series being planned by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire to commemorate the role of Fighter Command in the county.