Unseen pictures of Winston Churchill during WWII to go under the hammer

London -  An astonishing archive of photos has been discovered showing Winston Churchill calmly puffing away on his trademark cigar in an aeroplane cockpit during a death-defying wartime flight.

The Second World War PM was braving an 18-hour Atlantic crossing from the US in 1942 which flew over a German base and made him a target for the Luftwaffe – and for the Royal Air Force fighter planes.

The photos and mementos have been in the family of a man detailed to take snaps on the Prime Minister’s return from the United States in January 1942, the Daily Express reported.

Flight Officer Ron Buck kept back his souvenir pictures from the trip, later described as the “most daring flight of the whole war”.

Churchill had crossed the Atlantic by ship to lobby President Roosevelt about focusing on Hitler after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor but rashly decided to fly home from Bermuda, the first head of state to fly the Atlantic.

With senior colleagues, who included Daily Express owner Lord Beaverbrook, his aircraft production minister, Churchill embarked on a perilous 18-hour flight on Royal Mail Boeing Clipper flying boat Berwick.

A Luftwaffe squadron was scrambled to intercept when it flew too near Brest in France and, approaching England from an unexpectedly southern direction, six Hurricanes were ordered to shoot it down but fortunately neither friend nor foe could find it.

Winston Churchill had crossed the Atlantic by ship to lobby President Roosevelt about focusing on Hitler after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor

The archive came to light when the photographer’s nephew Miles Buck, who lives in New Zealand, took it to a TV antiques roadshow.

It is expected to fetch 12,000 pounds at auction in Auckland on Wednesday.