They called it VesuviusIt was the mission on which D-day depended and it was given to 633 Squadron, the R.A.F.’s crack squadron at a time when every ounce of skill counted. They were top pilots who flew with the recklessness of a passionate hatred for the enemy.But although they were fighting machines, they were also men. There was the Wing Commander, tough, cynical, careless of his life but not of his crews; Gillibrand, the big, brash flier who never knew when to stop; Ber...

After a near-suicide mission to the Swartfjord, which claimed many lives, morale among the survivors of 633 Squadron was at its lowest ebb. Unbearable tension and problems with replacement recruits were tearing the squadron apart...The new Commander, Ian Moore — young, brilliant and aggressive — knew that the only thing that would pull it together was the challenge of another dangerous mission...The Germans were developing “Rhine Maiden,” a new antiaircraft rocket which pos...

Spring 1944: In a fortified chateau hidden deep in the valleys of France, the Nazis are in the final stages of developing a terrifyingly deadly new weapon. Success would mean sure destruction for much of England and would dash all Allied hopes for a Normandy invasion. It’s up to the daring fighter pilots and crack navigators of the 633 Squadron to penetrate German defenses and, in the black of night, blast the doomsday project into extinction. Against incredible odds, this is the 633’s Ope...

The immense Allied landing on the coast of France signals invasion to the enemy, and the mighty German panzer divisions begin a furious race northward to the beaches of Normandy. With the outcome of the war at stake, the daredevil pilots of Squadron 633 take on their most harrowing mission ever: Operation Titan. A 100-mile flight through occupied territory to destroy the crucial and massively guarded bridge across the Loire River.Frederick E. Smith (1919-2012) joined the R.A.F. in ...

Autumn 1943: An angry American press has blamed the RAF for heavy U.S. B-17 losses over Europe. To restore confidence, joint Allied operations are planned by RAF and 8th Air Force top brass. 633 Squadron, whose Rhine Maiden mission success has won them a glorious reputation, is called in to launch Operation Crucible. It is to be a Dieppe-style landing by the Americans, supported by the aces of 633 Squadron. Their hazardous role: to give ground support to troops against overwhelming firepow...

That cold morning in July 1943 still haunted 633 Squadron, for only a single Mosquito made it back from the suicidal but successful Operation Vesuvius. Now, barely a year later, the Germans were once more processing the secret “element” known as IMI in a strongly defended facility in Norway and were about to move their stocks to the safety of Germany. If successful, the whole tide of the war would be turned. Once again, it meant another “mission impossible” for 633 Squadron...Frede...

Transnational Catholicism in Tudor England details the relationship between transnational mobility and the development of Tudor Catholicism. Almost two hundred Catholics felt compelled to exile themselves from England rather than conform with the religious reformations inaugurated by Henry VIII and Edward VI. Frederick E. Smith explores how these émigrés' physical mobility reconfigured their relationships with the men and women they left behind, and how it forced them to develop...

This account of the Great War puts you right in the action—from one of the fighter pilots of the Royal Flying Corps.From the young airmen who took their frail machines high above the trenches of World War I and fought their foes in single combat, there emerged a renowned company of brilliant aces—among them Ball, Bishop, McCudden, Collishaw, and Mannock—whose legendary feats have echoed down half a century. But behind the elite pilots in the Royal Flying Corps, the...

A newly discovered "exhilarating and moving memoir" of an RAF fighter pilot in World War II ( Daily Mail).It is not often that a long-hidden gem of a manuscript is published, bringing a moment in WWII history to vivid life for today's readers. Geoffrey Wellum's First Light was one example. The memoir of Timothy Vigors is another.Born in Hatfield but raised in Ireland and educated at Eton and Cranwell, Vigors found himself in France in 1940...

The truth about the battle that came to define our Vietnam War - from the men who were there.18th August, 1966. 1pm…D Company entered the plantation. They thought that, if they were lucky, they were closing in on perhaps 30 or 40 VC. They were horribly wrong.Over twelve long, bloody and brutal hours, 105 Australian soldiers and three New Zealanders fought off mortar attacks and heavy machine-gun fire, unaware they were facing up to 2500 Viet Cong a...

Last in the RAF trilogy, this story charts the exploits of world-class fighter pilot Dicken Quinney. It is the summer of 1939 and when war breaks out, Quinney finds himself flying through the skies of France, shot down over a cemetery and forced to make a breath-taking escape across Nazi Europe, into the hands of his nemesis, General Lee Tse Liu.

This WWII memoir of an NCO Royal Air Force pilot offers a vivid, personal account of wartime life and dangerous operations over Europe.In 1941, Graham White was passing a Royal Air Force recruiting center and, on the spur of the moment, signed up. As a non-commissioned RAF pilot, he went on to fly long-range night-fighters against the Luftwaffe. White experienced badly designed and dangerous aircraft, such as the Beaufighter with its Merlin engine. But he also flew...