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The first part of this book deals with German PoW camps as they were opened, in chronological order and to which the Bomber Command PoWs were sent. Each chapter includes anecdotes and stories of the men in the camps - capture, escape, illness, murder and more - and illustrates the awfulness of captivity even in German hands. Roughly one in every 20 captured airmen never returned home. The first part of the book also covers subjects such as how the PoWs were repatriated during the war; how they returned at war's end; the RAF traitors; the war crimes; and the vital role of the Red Cross. The style is part reference, part narrative and aims to correct many historical inaccuracies. It also includes previously unpublished photographs. The second part comprises an annotated list of all 10,995 RAF Bomber Command airmen who were taken prisoner, together with an extended introduction. The book provides an important contribution to our knowledge of the war. It is a reference work not only for the serious RAF historian but for the ex-PoWs themselves and their families and anyone with an interest in the RAF in general and captivity in particular.
A Royal Air Force pilot recounts his harrowing wartime experiences, including being shot down over occupied France, in this thrilling WWII memoir. Born in North London in 1922, John Misseldine enlisted in the Royal Air Force as soon as he turned eighteen. After training in California, he flew fighters with 611 Squadron, led by the legendary Battle of Britain veteran D.H. Watkins. Then, on June 8th, 1942, Misseldine was shot down over Nazi occupied northern France. For more than two months, Misseldine was on the run from the Gestapo, aided and abetted by the French resistance and British Intelligence. Journeying south, he eventually made his way to Gibraltar and escaped back to the British Isles. Misseldine was later commissioned as a pilot officer and posted to Algeria to ferry new Spitfires and Hurricanes to front-line squadrons supporting the Eighth Army. It was there that he met and married a French girl, Mauricette. Sixty-four years later, they are still together.
The author of RAF Evaders provides a comprehensive reference of the airmen of Bomber Command who were held in German captivity during WWII. This extensive book is divided into two part. The first, which has eighteen chapters, deals with German POW camps as they were opened, in chronological order and to which the Bomber Command POWs were sent. Each chapter includes anecdotes and stories of the men in the camps—capture, escape, illness, and murder—and illustrates the awfulness of captivity even in German hands. Roughly one in every twenty captured airmen never returned home. The first part also covers subjects such as how the POWs were repatriated during the war; how they returned at war�...
Stories of the British airmen shot down over Western Europe who evaded capture by the Germans and made their way to Allied territory during World War II. During the five years from May 1940 to May 1945 several thousand Allied airmen, forced to abandon their aircraft behind enemy lines, evaded capture and reached freedom, by land, sea and air. The territory held by the Germans was immense—from Norway and Denmark in the north, through Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg to the south of France—and initially there was no organization to help the men on the run. The first one to assist the evaders and escapers (“E & E” as the Americans called them) was the PAT line, along the Mediterranean coast...
Formed in February 1918, the RFC's 148th Squadron was disbanded in 1919 but eventually reformed as 148 Squadron RAF in 1937. It began the Second World War in a training role before being disbanded again in May 1940. A loose flight of Wellington bombers on the island of Malta formed the next incarnation of 148 Squadron in December 1940. Forced to withdraw to Egypt in March 1941, its Wellingtons flew bombing operations against Axis forces in the Western Desert. In early 1942 the Squadron achieved the dubious, and possibly unique, distinction of having all its NCO aircrew flying operationally whilst on charges of insubordination, with five of them ultimately being court-martialed. In December 1...
Charged with the formidable task of locating and marking German targets for attack by the main force of Bomber Command, the Path Finder Force - 8 (PFF) Group and those in 5 Group - was perhaps the most experienced and highly trained elite group created within the Royal Air Force during World War II. Its aircrew members were almost entirely volunteers and despite the terrifying odds against any individual (or complete crew) ever completing the sixty-sorties tour of operations with the PFF, the most feared punishment' was to forfeit their coveted Path Finder wings and be posted away to other units.This remarkable evocation of a remarkable force is made up largely of narrative and photographs f...
When World War I ended, hundreds of British veterans stayed in France to work for the newly chartered Imperial War Graves Commission. Through the 1920s and 1930s, these veteran-gardeners married local women, raised bilingual children, and dedicated themselves to caring for the graves of their fallen comrades. When World War II swept through Europe in 1940, more than 200 War Graves gardeners were stranded in Nazi-occupied France. Their bosses explicitly ordered them to remain at their posts, even when their villages were under attack by the invading Germans. While some escaped, others were arrested by the Nazis. A handful managed to stay free and join the French Resistance. With their English...
“A truly remarkable story . . . Marc Stevens has produced a fitting tribute to his father . . . who played a full part in the defeat of Nazi Germany.” —HistoryOfWar.org Peter Stevens was a German-Jewish refugee who escaped Nazi persecution as a teenager in 1933. He joined the RAF in 1939 and after eighteen months of pilot training he started flying bombing missions against his own country. He completed twenty-two missions before being shot down and taken prisoner by the Nazis in September 1941. To escape became his raison d’être and his great advantage was that he was in his native country. He was recaptured after each of his several escapes, but the Nazis never realized his true id...
To Hell and Back is the story of some of the other Australian airmen who flew with Bomber Command. Laurie Woods either knew these men personally or had heard of them during the campaign.
This is a brand-new, updated history of the Nuremburg Raid, taking advantage of new stores of information that have come to light in recent years. In his usual, highly-praised style, Martin Bowman's historical narrative is supplemented throughout by first-hand snippets of pilot testimony, offering an authentic sense of events as they played out. Having access to extensive archives of images ensures that this is a visually pleasing and comprehensive account of one of the most iconic raids of the Second World War.