Download or read book Heroes of Bomber Command Norfolk written by Rupert Matthews and published by Heroes of Bomber Command. This book was released on 2006-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Norfolk was one of the most important counties used by Bomber Command in the last war. From airfields in Norfolk such as Swanton Morley, Marham, Downham Market and Watton, crews flew almost suicidal operations, many in daylight and some at heights of 50 feet or lower, against heavily defended industrial installations in Germany and occupied Europe. The bomber crews were engaged in a special type of warfare; a matter of hours separated them from the relative peace and tranquility of the English countryside and a flight into hell. They had to contend with adverse weather, intense cold, physical and mental fatigue, phalanxes of searchlights, heavy and intense flak and the Luftwaffe's night-fighters, before returning, if they were lucky, across a hostile North Sea often in damaged aircraft before landing safely; a blessed return to some form of normality but with the sure and certain knowledge that the next night they would face such horrors again, and again and again until their tours were completed or their luck deserted them and they did not return, like so many of their friends and colleagues. Despite this they did not receive any special Campaign medal. Winston Churchill himself was moved to write that "The charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava is eclipsed in brightness by their daily deeds of fame". In this well-researched and excellently written book, Rupert Matthews - himself the son of a Bomber Command sergeant stationed at Swanton Morley - describes many of the raids in detail and tells the story of courageous individuals who, despite the odds, flew mission after mission - heroes everyone of them. Rupert Matthews is a well established author with a particular interest in military history. He is also the author of Heroes of Bomber Command Lincolnshire.
Download or read book Heroes of Bomber Command written by Graham Smith and published by Heroes of Bomber Command. This book was released on 2008 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tribute to the pilots and crew who flew from airbases in Suffolk during the last war and whose actions displayed some of the finest examples of courage and devotion to duty.
Download or read book Heroes of Bomber Command written by Michael Wadsworth and published by Heroes of Bomber Command. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yorkshire was home to Bomber Command's 4 Group. August 1942 saw the creation of the Pathfinder Force, whose task was marking targets for the groups of bombers behind them with a precision that called for reckless heroism. In this excellently researched book Michael Wadsworth describes the air war in Yorkshire, and the young airmen who flew night after night against desperate odds. The bravery determination and resolve of the 'Bomber Men' must never be forgotten.
Download or read book Heroes of Bomber Command written by Graham Smith and published by Heroes of Bomber Command. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this excellently researched book, Graham Smith describes the air war in Cambridgeshire, and the young airmen who flew night after night against desperate odds. It was from Cambridgeshire airfields too, that the legendary Pathfinder Force (P.F.F.) first took to the skies, marking targets for the force of bombers behind them with a precision that called for reckless heroism. Bomber Command suffered no less than 55,500 airmen killed, some 7,400 wounded, and over 9,800 made prisoners of war. Despite this their members did not receive any campaign medals though many heroes emerged and countless gallantry medals were awarded including twenty one Victoria Crosses. The bravery, determination and resolve of the 'Bomber Men' must never, ever be forgotten.
Download or read book Lincolnshire written by Rupert Matthews and published by Heroes of Bomber Command. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, such was the build-up of men and materials in the RAF that Lincolnshire was already known as 'Bomber Country'. Its four main airfields - Hemswell, Scampton, Waddington and Cottesmore - were home to eight squadrons of Bomber Command under the legendary Arthur 'Bomber' Harris. Night after night the skies of Lincolnshire reverberated with the sound of aircraft taking off and landing. For the aircrews the missions were very dangerous and physically exhausting. The chances of surviving a full tour of 30 operations were only 50/50, less in the first five sorties while aircrews gained valuable experience. Their targets were roads, railways, bridges, harbours, dams, factories and oil installations. Many medals were won - some of them posthumously. On the Dambusters Raid alone, 36 were awarded; a VC for the leader Guy Gibson, five DSOs, 14 DFCs, 12 DFMs and three Conspicuous Gallantry Medals. In this well researched and excellently written book, Rupert Matthews - himself the son of a Bomber Command sergeant who fought in the Second World War - describes many of the operations in detail and tells the story of courageous individuals who, despite the odds, flew mission after mission - heroes every one of them.
Download or read book Hell on Earth written by Mel Rolfe and published by Grub Street Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09-22 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty true stories of bravery, survival, and good and bad luck involving Bomber Command during World War II from the author of Flying into Hell. In their own words, the heroes of Bomber Command tell their harrowing stories . . . “It is believed that when Dacey realized the aircraft was on fire he grabbed an extinguisher, hurried aft and tried, in vain, to put out the flames. Somehow he became trapped behind the spreading inferno and was unable to return to the cockpit for his parachute. Alone with his screams, he could do nothing except wait and die as his unsuspecting companions jumped into the cold night. It is likely that Dacey was already dead before the Halifax plunged into the ground and blew up, atomizing his body.” “We were marched to a deserted and tatty industrial area, into a short cu-de-sac, where most of the property was badly damaged. A factory wall stood across the bottom and they put us against it. A line of a dozen (German) soldiers stood pavement to pavement, rifles against their shoulders. A corporal stood near them with his hand up. Stan said to me in a low, horrified voice: ‘They’re going to shoot us.’” “We could see the (Lancaster) wing flapping up and down. It could have broken off at any time and going through my mind was the thought that it probably would. But we pressed on. I took a realistic view. I knew the chances were against us getting back and this might be the time everything was going to end. But I didn’t experience fear which interfered with what I had to do.”
Download or read book Air Heroes of World War II written by Robert Jackson and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Heroes of the Skies written by Michael Ashcroft and published by Headline. This book was released on 2012-09-13 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the dawn of aerial combat in the First World War, the heroism of the men who put their lives at risk in the air has known no bounds. There were no more heroic airmen than the fighter pilots and bomber crews of the Second World War - men who sacrificed their own lives in order to save their crew or who, although in extreme pain, managed to get their aircraft home rather than risk becoming PoWs. In telling the stories of more than eighty such men, Heroes of the Skies paints a picture of aerial combat from the First World War right through to Afghanistan, and allows us to celebrate the extraordinary feats of our flying heroes.
Download or read book The Bomber Boys written by Travis L. Ayres and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: True tales of heroism and the men who fought and died in the skies of World War II Europe. In World War II, there were all too many ways for a fighting man to die. But no theater of operations offered more fatal choices than the skies above Nazi-occupied Europe. Inside of a B-17 Bomber, thousands of feet above the earth, death was always a moment away. From the hellish storms of enemy flak and relentless strafing of Luftwaffe fighters, to mid-air collisions, mechanical failure, and simple bad luck, it’s a wonder any man would volunteer for such dangerous duty. But some very brave men did. Some paid the ultimate price. Some made it home. But in the end, all would achieve victory. Here, author Travis L. Ayres has gathered a collection of previously untold personal accounts of combat and camaraderie aboard the B-17 Bombers that flew countless sorties against the enemy, as related by the men who lived and fought in the air—and survived. They are stories of heroism, sacrifice, miraculous survival and merciless warfare. But they should all be remembered... INCLUDES PHOTOS
Download or read book Bomber Command Reflections of War Volume 4 written by Martin W. Bowman and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This, the fourth volume of a five part work that provides a comprehensive insight into all aspects of RAF Bomber Command in World War Two, begins in the spring of 1944 with a completely new insight on the catastrophic raid on Nuremburg on the night of 30/31 March and follows with the disastrous attack on Mailly-le-Camp in May. Gradually, the Allied Bomber Offensive began to bear fruit and in June 1944 the invasion of Normandy took place under an umbrella of almost total Allied air superiority. RAF Bomber Command was to play a huge part in what proved to be the final steps to ultimate victory, returning to the mass raids on German cities by night and even mounting raids on the Reich by day. The authors well-tried formula of using background information interspersed with the crews personal narrative takes you raid by raid through each tour of ops while carrying full bomb loads in sub-zero temperatures, blighted by atrocious weather conditions and dogged by fear of fire, death or serious injury or having to endure months if not years of miserable existence and near starvation behind the wire in notorious PoW camps. The path to peace was paved with the unmitigated slow ebbing of courage with an ever-present possibility of death unannounced from a prowling night fighter, nondescript and unseen, as night after incessant night, shattered and ailing bombers could run out of luck to crash in some foreign field while other crews, almost home almost empty - ran out of fuel and died horrible tortuous deaths in twisted and tangled wreckage. Not for them the glory that was accorded The Few but as Winston Churchill said: Fighters are our salvation, but the bombers alone provide the means of victory.
Download or read book Flying Among Heroes written by Norman Franks and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the extraordinary career of a Second World War bomber pilot, Flying Among Heroes brings together adventure and human daring with the harsh realities of being a member of the wartime Royal Air Force. Tom Cooke, like hundreds of other young men in 1939, joined up to the RAF just a few days before war began aged 18, being selected for pilot training. Just five years later, he had flown fifty-one operations, taken part in the Berlin bombings and three 1,000-bomber raids, and had even taken part in special operations in conjunction with the SOE. Not only did Cooke volunteer for an optional second and third tour of operations, but he was also shot down over France on his thirteenth special operation, survived the bale out with his crew and evaded capture. Helped by the French Resistance, he managed to make his way into Spain and was taken back to England from Gibraltar. Unsurprisingly, considering Cooke's outstanding bravery and patriotism, he was decorated multiple times in his career. Franks and Muggleton make use of primary documentation, including Cooke's own words, and contemporary images to put together a poignant story of wartime duty. In an effort to portray the situation for many young men like Cooke, much information is included on other squadrons and operations, as well as on Bomber Command itself. In all, 55,000 men of Bomber Command gave their lives to the cause of the Second World War; this is the tale of just one of those remarkable young men who survived the hardships of war, returning victorious to a nation of heroes.
Download or read book Bomber Command written by Martin Bowman and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2012-02-19 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This massive work provides a comprehensive insight to the experiences of Bomber Command s pilots and aircrew throughout World War Two. From the early wartime years when the RAF s first attempts to avenge Germany s onslaught were bedeviled by poor navigation and inaccurate bombing, to the final winning onslaught that finally tamed Hitler in his Berlin lair, these volumes trace the true experiences of the men who flew the bombers. Hundreds of first-hand accounts are punctuated by the author s background information that put each narrative into wartime perspective. Every aspect of Bomber Commands operational duties are covered; day and night bombing, precision low-level strikes, mass raids and operations throughout all wartime theaters. Contributions are from RAF personnel who flew the command s different aircraft from the early Blenheims and Stirlings to the later Lancasters and Mosquitoes. Each volume is full of accounts that tell of the camaraderie amongst the crews, moments of sheer terror and the stoic humor that provided the critical bond. The five volumes of this work provide the most vivid and comprehensive work on the outstanding part played by RAF Bomber Command in their vital role in the destruction of the Third Reich."
Download or read book Heroes All written by Steve Bond and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This WWII history shares the personal stories of frontline airmen from all sides of the conflict gathered through original interviews. Aviation historian Steve Bond has spent years interviewing veterans of World War II. He recorded the stories of former airmen and crewmembers who shared the same pieces of sky at the same time. The project brought together British and German, German and Russian, British and Italian, American and German—sometimes literally. In Heroes All, Bond presents the stories of these veterans—some of whom are household names—with annotations and overviews providing historical context. This is not a book about the rights and wrongs of war, nor the strategies of the military commanders. It is about the experiences and feelings of those on the front line. This volume includes stories and recollections from veterans of the Air Transport Auxiliary, British Army, Fleet Air Arm, Italian air force, Luftwaffe, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and Navy, Soviet air force, US Army, US Army Air Force, US Navy, and other groupings.
Download or read book Bomber Command written by Max Hastings and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This award-winning classic of WWII military history chronicles the Royal Air Force’s bombing campaign against Germany. RAF Bomber Command’s air offensive against the cities of Nazi Germany was one of the most epic campaigns of World War II. The struggle began meekly in 1939 with only a few aircraft—Whitleys, Hampdens, and Wellingtons—flying blindly through the night on their ill-conceived bombing runs. It ended six years later with 1,600 Lancasters, Halifaxes, and Mosquitoes, equipped with the best of British wartime technology, blazing whole German cities in a single night. In Bomber Command, originally published to critical acclaim in the UK, famed British military historian Sir Max Hastings offers a captivating analysis of the strategy and decision-making behind one of World War II’s most violent episodes. With firsthand descriptions of the experiences of aircrew from 1939 to 1945—based on one hundred interviews with veterans—and a harrowing narrative of the experiences of Germans on the ground during the September 1944 bombing of Darmstadt, Bomber Command is widely recognized as a classic account of one of the bloodiest campaigns in World War II history. Winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize
Download or read book Heroes of Coastal Command written by Andrew D. Bird and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Real-life, action-packed, personal stories of valor from the history of the RAF’s maritime arm during World War II. It took thirty minutes for one Coastal Command crew to sink two U-boats. The crew of Flying Officer Kenneth “Kayo” Moore in their 224 Squadron Liberator carried out this remarkable achievement on the evening of 7/8 June 1944. While patrolling the western end of the English Channel, Moore’s crew first dispatched U-629, followed just under thirty minutes later by U-373. The story of this remarkable engagement is just one of many recounted by the author in Heroes of Coastal Command. Established in 1936, Coastal Command was the RAF’s only maritime arm. Throughout the war, its crews worked tirelessly alongside the Royal Navy to keep Britain’s vital sea lanes open. Together, they fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic, with RAF aircraft destroying 212 German U-Boats and sinking a significant tonnage of enemy warships and merchant vessels. Often working alone and unsupported, undertaking long patrols out over opens seas, Coastal Command bred a special kind of airman. Alongside individuals such as Kenneth Moore, there were Allan Trigg, Kenneth Campbell and John Cruickshank, all of whom were awarded the Victoria Cross; Norman Jackson-Smith, a Blenheim pilot who flew in the Battle of Britain; Jack Davenport, who flew his Hampden to Russia; John Watson, the sole survivor of a Short Sunderland which was lost during a rescue mission; and Ken Gatward, who flew a unique daylight mission over Paris to drop a Tricolore on the Arc de Triomphe. Theirs are just some of the many exciting stories revealed by the author.
Download or read book Reluctant Hero written by John Hickman and published by John Hickman. This book was released on 2018-09-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John tells the true story about his dad, Bill's involvement in the Second World War. Bill grows up in the slums of Notting Hill, London and leaves school at fourteen. Despite his insecurities, while still in his late teens, he becomes a pilot of Lancaster bombers. He wants to belong to the 'establishment' but rebels against the powers-that-be when he realises they think he is expendable. Loss of life and planes is horrendous and to Bill's mind largely unnecessary. His attitude towards death in combat changes after he meets and marries John's mother to be, Alice. After the raid over Dresden in February 1945, he becomes angry at the cover-ups, corruption and myriad of lies. Authorities dispute claims that British planes carried out machine-gun attacks on the civilian population but Bill knows otherwise! Against all odds he survives the war but is dreadfully scarred emotionally. After serving his country he is penalised, dismissed without a commission or job. Even told he is unfit to fly! '...Prediction is difficult, especially about the future, but had I known then, what I know now, I would never have taken part in World War Two.'
Download or read book The Crew written by David Price and published by Apollo. This book was released on 2021-01-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Crew specifically follows Flying Officer Jim Comans and his crewmen from their enlistment as volunteers, through training and into operational service. The Comans crew flew forty-five hazardous bombing missions - mostly deep into Germany at night - through the winter of 1943 to the summer of 1944. The Crew recounts the intimate, personal testimonies to the author of Wing Commander Ken Cook who served as Bomb Aimer with the Comans crew. At ninety-five Ken Cook is the crew's last survivor. Enlisting in RAF Bomber Command at nineteen his extraordinary story brings a moving insight into the bombing campaign. His experiences, particularly during the Battle of Berlin, highlight the extreme danger each bomber crew faced. With Bomber Command's casualty rate of over 44%, the book describes how the airmen overcame immense physical and mental challenges to survive. There are now very few surviving RAF Bomber Command airmen from the Second World War. The Crew will be one of the final eyewitness testimonies to a momentous time in our history.
