Veterans of the RAF's legendary Pathfinder Force share their personal accounts of WWII in this authoritative history by the author of Master Bombers.During the Second World War, the Pathfinder Force was the corps d'élite of Bomber Command. Literally leading the charge in the Royal Air Force's bombing raids over Nazi occupied territory, the aircrews of the PFF required top notch skills and nerves of steel. In Pathfinder Companion, aviation historian...

Gestapo Hunter explores the charmed life and exceptional career of Ted Sismore, widely considered one of the RAF’s very best wartime navigators and leaders. A quiet, unassuming man who was nicknamed ‘Daisy’ on account of his youthful complexion, Ted was one of only a handful of aircrew to complete a tour of operations in Blenheims in the summer of 1941. He is best remembered, however, for his long association with the Mosquito. Planning and leading some of the Mossie’s most famous...

The wartime exploits and experiences of an RAF bomber pathfinder squadron are recounted in this WWII history—"A stunning war book" ( Oxford Times, UK).Formed in July 1942, the Pathfinder Force was the corps d'élite of the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command. The Squadrons of the PFF were tasked with marking targets and leading bomber formations to the right place at the right time. And the best of the force formed the crews of the master bombers, the aircraft...

Shot down and killed in April 1944, Lionel Anderson, a low flying Mosquito intruder pilot, was part way through his second tour of operations. He had survived his first tour stooging up and down the French coast in an outdated Boulton Paul Defiant to confound the German night fighter defenses and allow the Royal Air Force bombers a free run to the target. Lionel’s journey to war had been one of enormous excitement, most of which had been spent training in the sunshine and mountains of Ariz...

An RAF pilot who flew around the world with Winston Churchill during World War II tells his story.An RAF Volunteer Reserve officer, John Mitchell was mobilized on the outbreak of war—and just missed going to join a Battle Squadron in France where he would have undoubtedly been killed. Instead, he was posted to No. 58 Squadron flying Whitleys, surviving a tour of operations in 1940–41 that included ditching in the North Sea. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, h...

The legendary RAF bomber who survived the infamous Stalag 3 POW camp recounts his WWII experiences in this military memoir.Growing up in Berlin just as Adolf Hitler was coming to power, Andrew Wiseman escaped to Poland with is family when he was thirteen. He later made his way to England where he joined the Royal Air Force, training first as a pilot and then as an air bomber in South Africa. Joining No. 466 squadron, he flew Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers in a ...

A history of the twentieth-century Royal Air Force training programme as told by the men who lived it.The RAF Halton Apprenticeship Scheme has a deserved reputation for excellence. The brainchild of MRAF Hugh Trenchard, the founder of the Royal Air Force, it took the "traditional" idea of an apprenticeship and interpreted it in a novel way. It allowed teenage boys from any social background or geography to learn a technical trade that would equip them for their fut...

The story of the RAF pilot and POW shot down in 1939—including his role in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III—is told in this intimate WWII biography.While on a reconnaissance sortie over Germany in 1939, Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Alfie Fripp was shot down by the Luftwaffe and taken prisoner. The longest-serving British prisoner of war, he was also the last of the surviving "39-ers" when he died in 2012. His wartime years were spent in numerous camps, inc...

The only RAF flight engineer to be awarded a Distinguished Service Order recounts his prolific WWII combat career in this engaging military memoir.Flight Lieutenant Ted Stocker lived a charmed life. Joining the Royal Air Force as a teenager, he trained as one of the famous Halton Aircraft Apprentices known as Trenchard's Brats. Stationed at RAF Boscombe Down, he flew prototype Stirling and Halifax bombers just as the Second World War broke out. Qualifying as one of...

Coming Down in the Drink is the story of Flight Lieutenant John Brennan DFC. John is an Irishman who need not have fought in the war at all. A sense of adventure took him to London where he trained as a chef before joining the RAF and qualifying as a wireless operator/air gunner.Posted to 148 Squadron in the Middle East in 1941, John was soon in the fray as the front gunner of a Wellington, flying daily sorties to Benghazi in what was known as the mail run, bombing enemy ships that were of...

This WWII combat history offers a detailed chronicle and analysis of an RAF Pathfinder Squadron's ill-fated operation over Cologne.On December 23rd, 1944, an elite squadron of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command engaged in a courageous yet tragic daylight raid on the Gremberg railway yards in Cologne, Germany. One of the war's most significant raids, it is scarcely mentioned in history books. Yet it was an operation in which its leader won the Victoria Cross, and a ...

Gestapo Hunter explores the charmed life and exceptional career of Ted Sismore, widely considered one of the RAF's very best wartime navigators and leaders. A quiet, unassuming man who was nicknamed "Daisy" on account of his youthful complexion, Ted was one of only a handful of aircrew to complete a tour of operations in Blenheims in the summer of 1941. He flew in the daylight attack on Berlin, timed to coincide with an address being given by Hermann Göring, for which he received ...