Hungarian soldier imprisoned for more than half a century

ifind it hard to believe, but my mum swears it’s true – she says a Japanese soldier was found hiding in the jungle in the 1970s, not knowing that the Second World War was over.

Did this really happen? And was he the last combatant to find his way home after the war? – M.

It is true, and three Japanese soldiers were not discovered until the ’70s.

The last to surrender was Teruo Nakamura, a private in the 4th Takasago Volunteer Unit.

He was stationed on Morotai Island in Indonesia shortly before the island was overrun by the Allies in September, 1944.

Nakamura lived on his own in a hut on the island, which was only discovered, by accident, by a pilot as he flew over the island.

A rescue mission was launched and Nakamura was located on December 18, 1974 – 29 years after the end of hostilities.

However, he wasn’t the last combatant to be repatriated. That unwelcome title belongs to Tamas Anders, a Hungarian soldier who was taken prisoner by the Russian Red Army in 1945 and sent to a prison in the city of Vladimir.

Unfortunately, he seems to have simply been forgotten.

As he only spoke Hungarian and everyone in the prison spoke Russian, guards decided his mutterings proved he was insane and he was sequestered to a psychiatric wing,

It wasn’t until a Hungarian journalist, in the prison to research a TV documentary, overheard him and realised Anders was Hungarian.

He was finally freed in 2000,

55 years after the end of the war.

In 1974, intelligence officer Hiroo Onada was found in the Philippines jungle

Which bike rider has completed the most Tour de France races? – T.That is Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk who competed in 16 Tours, 1970-73 and 1975-86, finishing each one.He won the race in 1980 and also came eighth, fifth, fourth (three times) and second (six times).He also won the Vuelta a Espana 1979.The Dutch cycling federation, the KNWU, named Zoetemelk the best Dutch rider of all time.

Which insurance company promised: “We won’t make a drama out of a crisis”? – A.That was Commercial Union (CU), who used the slogan in a series of ads in the ’80s and ’90s.Probably the best remembered is the one where a man goes to his car, parked on a clifftop.On the beach below, his family are shocked as the car is blown over the cliff edge – thinking he is in it.However, he was safe and well and drama is averted when CU give him a new car.

Why is an elephant’s hooter called a trunk? It’s a nose, after all. – L.Actually, an elephant’s trunk is a fusion of its nose and upper lip.I believe the word trunk was first used in the 16th Century, at a time when it was also used to describe a pipe or hollow tube.Using at least 40,000 different muscles, an elephant can lift more than 700 pounds with its trunk.

Who was the female drummer in The Velvet Underground? - P.That was Maureen “Moe” Tucker, who joined the band in 1965.Rolling Stone magazine voted her one of the top 100 drummers of all time, saying: “Hers was the off-kilter thump that spawned a million bands.”Her playing style was unusual, in that she often played standing up for easier access to her bass drum