Twenty-three compelling accounts of desperate circumstances and unbelievable survival when planes went down in remote and dangerous locations.When a pilot experiences a sudden loud bang or sudden total silence, he is often faced with the stark choice of the parachute or attempting to get the aircraft down to earth in as few pieces as possible. This book describes twenty-three remarkable and true instances when, for a variety of reasons, all seems lost—but life was n...

Wolverhampton has been blessed with a large number of successful sports clubs and individuals who have won national and international acclaim. Wolverhampton Wanderers are the reason that the city's name is known worldwide. However, Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club and Wolverhampton Judo Club both have a greater claim to the accolade of most successful sporting club in the city. The 'other' Wolves, Wolverhampton's speedway team, have consistently ridden in the top flight of British Sp...

Wolverhampton was granted city status in 2000, but its origins lie in Anglo-Saxon England. During the Middle Ages Wolverhampton was a prosperous Staffordshire market town and a centre for the wool trade. Its coal and iron deposits enabled it to grow rapidly during the Industrial Revolution, when it became one of the most heavily industrialised areas of the country, specialising in coal mining, iron and steel production, engineering and manufacturing. The wealth brought into the town is see...

Wolverhampton was a Staffordshire market town in the Middle Ages but became a major industrial town during the Industrial Revolution, renowned for coal mining, metalworking and steel making. The prosperity brought to the town from this era is in evidence in many buildings in the city, and the growing population required a large programme of public housing in the early twentieth century. The development of Wolverhampton continued post-war, with much of the centre being rebuilt in the 1960s ...

Though there were airfields in Shropshire during the First World War, at Shawbury, Tern Hill and Monkmoor, it was in the late 1930s that a massive building programme began to dot the county with new RAF airfields, mostly for training purposes, until there were over sixteen – in some cases they were so close together that their circuits overlapped. Since the Second World War the number has fallen away, but Shawbury, Tern Hill, Cosford and little Chetwynd are still used by the RAF, and Sleap...

On 27 June 1910, the first ever all-British Flying Meeting began at Dunstall Park racecourse, Wolverhampton, and began an unbroken century of flying in the area. Dunstall Park, actually one of the first airports in the whole country, was to remain the town's airport until after the First World War, though an anti-Zeppelin landing strip was established at the Fern Fields, Perton, during the War. Though dogged by bad weather the Flying Meeting, only the third ever held in the country, attrac...

From some of the first ever airfields in Great Britain, through the municipal airports of Stoke, Walsall and Wolverhampton, to a total of eighteen RAF airfields in the Second World War, Staffordshire has always embraced aviation. Both Stoke and Wolverhampton were taken over for the use of Elementary Flying Training Schools, huge new airfields were built to house bomber Operational Training Units at Hixon and Lichfield, and to provide extra room for the Elementary Flying Training Schools, g...

The West Midlands city of Wolverhampton has a fascinating history. Originally a medieval market town, it grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution through the new coal-mining and manufacturing industries because of its mineral resources, particularly iron, coal and limestone. With the decline of these industries in the late twentieth century, Wolverhampton has had to change yet again, but in spite of the many changes that have occurred here the city has retained its identity. This fasc...

Fighting over the beaches of Dunkirk and in the Battle of Britain, guarding the night skies during the perilous months of the Blitz, pioneering electronic countermeasures, and serving air-sea rescue roles all around our coasts, the Boulton Paul Defiant played a vital part through most of the Second World War, finishing it in the important target-tug role. The Defiant is rightly considered Wolverhampton’s highest profile contribution to the war, and the most important product of Boulton Pau...

When Wolverhampton's horse-drawn trams were replaced by the unusual surface-contact Lorain system electric trams in 1902, it was one of the first such networks in the country. That they should be replaced by trolleybuses during the 1920s was only to be expected as the town boasted two of the country's biggest trolleybus manufacturers, Guy Motors and Sunbeam. When the trolleybuses came to be replaced in the late 1950s, the town's transport department chose the versatility of motor buses, an...

To mark the 40th anniversary of Leeds United’s Centenary FA Cup triumph, JMD Media has published Clarke … 10. This tells the story of how Don Revie’s super squad won their only FA Cup after a brilliant season in which United’s razzmatazz football won universal acclaim. It looks, match by match, at how the Whites reached Wembley where they delivered one of the greatest days in the club’s history. It’s a tale of power cuts, stocking tabs, pre-match warm-ups and spellbinding football that saw...

A Brief look at Celtic's 1967-68 season. It is part of the JMD Classic Season series. In May 1967 Celtic were the undisputed champions of Europe. But could they maintain their position? The answer looked like a resounding 'no" after an early failure in next season's European Cup and an ill-fated trip to South America. Even in Scotland, their position seemed to be tottering badly in January 1968. Could they fight back?This ebook supplies the answers.