The author of Flying into Hell climbs into the cockpit with the pilots of Bomber Command for classic stories of gallantry in World War II.This new edition of Mel Rolfe's successful book contains twenty dramatic but true stories of Bomber Command adventures.Some of them defy belief—like the RAF bomb aimer who was blown out of his Liberator over Warsaw at 400ft without a parachute and made a poignant return in 1989 to witness the unveiling of a memoria...

"Expertly researched . . . 20 different narratives in which these heroes venture out night after night on sorties throughout World War II Europe." — Plane and PilotThree weeks after Stirling air gunner Doug Fry was reported missing over Germany his mother was still clinging to the vain hope that he was alive.Then a neighbor said she had seen him in the cinema just down the road. The airman and his crew had been filmed for a Bomber Command documentary...

Vivid World War II stories of the brave men of Bomber Command and their adventures from the bestselling author of To Hell and Back and Hell on Earth.Mel Rolfe brings the reader real-life stories of bomber command at war with his new book Flying into Hell. A journalist by profession, Rolfe has conducted his interviews and prepared the stories in such a way as to take the reader into the events as they happened. To read these accounts is to ...

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 re...

The World War II exploits of the legendary RAF air gunner, "a true hero who repeatedly cheated death," from the author of Flying into Hell ( The Times).Born into grinding poverty in Scotland, Wallace McIntosh had not heard of Christmas until he was seven, and never celebrated his birthday until his late teens, but he could steal, kill and skin a sheep before he was twelve and snare anything that could be cooked in a pot. Leaving school at thirteen...

'We believed in ourselves so much, no one ever panicked, even when the situation looked so desperate. We all believed that our best chance of staying alive was to stick together.'Flying Lancaster bombers was one of the most dangerous missions of the war. Yet night after night Flight Lieutenant Geoffrey King and the crew of C Charlie risked their lives in the skies over Germany. Together they faced incredible dangers, flak damage, close encounters with the...

A gripping account of the epic hunt for Hitler’s most terrifying battleship – the legendary Tirpitz – and the brave men who risked their lives to attack and destroy this most potent symbol of the Nazi’s fearsome war machine.Tirpitz was the pride of Hitler’s navy. To Churchill, she was ‘the Beast’, a menace to Britain’s supply lines and a threat to the convoys sustaining Stalin’s armies. Tirpitz was said to be unsinkable, impregnable –no other target attracted so much attention....

The night of May 16th, 1943. Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, each with a huge 9,000lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland, which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine.From the outset it was an almost impossible task, a suicide mission: to fly low and at night in formationover many miles of enemy-occupied territ...

The heroic life of the pilot who became an ace with one of the most successful fighter squadrons in the RAF and a captive in a notorious Nazi POW camp.Following training, Lee received his commission and was posted to 501 Squadron which was sent to support the Expeditionary Force in France, arriving on 10 May, only hours after the Blitzkrieg had been launched. Lee quickly opened his score, claiming several bombers during the first week of operations. Having been woun...

This is a fighter pilot's story of eight memorable months from May to December 1940. When the Germans were blitzing their way across France, Pilot Officer Tom Neil had just received his first posting to 249 Squadron.Nineteen years old, fresh from training at Montrose on Hawker Audax biplanes he was soon to be pitch forked into the maelstrom of air fighting on which the survival of Britain was to depend. By the end of the year he had shot down 13 enemy aircraft, seen many of his fri...

The story of the everyday heroism of British bomber crews in 1944 - the turning point year in Bomber Command's war against Germany.There were many ways for a combat crew to die during Bomber Command's war of 1944. Over German territory, bursts of heavy flak could tear the wings from their planes in a split second. Flaming bullets from German fighter planes could explode their fuel tanks, cut their oxygen supplies, destroy their engines. In the spring of that year, ...

'A thrilling blow-by-blow account' The Times'A first-rate popular history of a fascinating and neglected battle... a veritable page-turner' BBC HistoryIn February 1944, a rag-tag collection of clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers, and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews managed to hold out against some of the finest infantry in the Japanese Army, and then defeat them in what was one o...