Frank Dell's experience as a Second World War pilot with the Royal Air Force's Light Night Striking Force takes an even more dramatic turn when his Mosquito is shot down over Germany on the night of 14/15 October 1944.
Decorated Polish fighter pilot Witold `Lanny' Lanowski tells his remarkable Second World War story beginning with his dramatic escape from Nazi aggression in Poland, fighting with the reformed Polish Air Force in France, and eventually arriving in England to combat the Luftwaffe.
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 He had survived his first tour stooging up and down the French coast in an outdated Boulton Paul Defiant to confound the German night fighter defences and allow the Royal Air Force bombers a free run to the target.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...
On 20 January 1944 Bomber Command Navigator Reginald Wilson¿s Halifax, LW337, comes into the sights of an ace Luftwaffe night fighter pilot, and is blown from the darkness above the German capital Berlin. Reg, yet to celebrate his twenty-first birthday, plunges into the dark and parachutes to safety, but the experience of being shot down will haunt him for the rest of his life.In July 2005 Reg embarks on a seemingly impossible quest to discove...
The Canadian contribution to the Second World War bombing campaign, from the first days to the last, proved instrumental in securing the defeat of Nazism. Historian Ken Cothliff has pieced together the extraordinary stories of four Canadian volunteers who chose to fly 'Under the Maple Leaf' and play their part in the eventual victory over tyranny.
The Supermarine Spitfire is not only one of the most famous British icons, but it is arguably the most widely-recognised and popular aircraft in the history of aviation. For many generations it was said to be ¿every schoolboy¿s dream¿ to fly a Spitfire, and Flying the Icon: Spitfire aims to give the reader an insight into what that requires. To mark the 80th anniversary of the first flight of Prototype K5054 on 5 March 1936, author Jarrod Cott...
The only US 8th Army Air Force fighter group to retain the mighty P-47 Thunderbolt throughout its combat tour in the European Theatre of Operations, the 56th Fighter Group justified its nickname of 'Zemke¿s Wolfpack' by the aggressive attitude and tactics instilled by its original wartime commander Hub Zemke. This attitude continued through to VE-Day under the auspices of his successors Dave Schilling and Lucian Dade, and it became the top sco...
ETA is a compelling story of bravery and strength of character, as Bomber Command navigator Gordon Mellor, with a subtle hint of humour, describes the trials of Second World War bombing operations, the extraordinary circumstances of being shot down, and his remarkable evasion.
In early 1939, 19-year-old Salopian Eric Lock joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve to fulfil his dream of flying. Within eighteen months, he found himself pitted against one of the largest air forces in the world, fighting for the survival of his homeland in a pivotal battle that, if lost, had the potential to change the course of world history. As his training was not completed until after the Dunkirk evacuations, he was not posted to his first o...
In May 1942 RAF Bomber Command observer Jack Love¿s world comes crashing down, literally. His aircraft sustains flak damage and a catastrophic engine failure forces a crash-landing in Northern France. The pilot manages a safe belly-landing in a ploughed field, and the uninjured crew scramble free of the wreckage, running to safety as flames engulf the Wellington bomber. A five-week trek follows, mostly at night, as they march almost 300 miles ...
When the Royal Canadian Air Force wouldn¿t accept him as a pilot in the summer of 1939, Keith ¿Skeets¿ Ogilvie walked across the street in Ottawa and joined the Royal Air Force. A week later he was on a boat to England and a future he could not have imagined. Some unusual luck won him a transfer as a Spitfire pilot to No. 609 (White Rose) Squadron, just as the Battle of Britain was being joined. Over the next months he firmly established his c...
To mark the centenary of the formation of one of the Royal Air Force¿s longest serving squadrons Fighting High Publishing presents Owen Clark¿s Under Their Own Flag, which details the remarkable story of No. 47 Squadron from its birth in 1916 through to the culmination of the Second World War.Formed at Beverley, Yorkshire, on 1 March 1916, No. 47 Squadron went on to operate in far flung corners of the world, frequently as the sole representati...
The distinctive black and yellow chequered markings of the 353rd Fighter Group, the ¿Slybirds¿, made them one of the USAAF ¿Mighty¿ 8th Air Force¿s most colourful fighter groups. Flying P-47D Thunderbolts and later P-51D Mustangs the 353rd¿s appearance in the skies over occupied Europe witnessed growing American air power and helped to change the course of the air war. From mid-1943 until the end of hostilities in Europe, the 353rd participate...
