Search results for ""fighting high ltd""

Herbert Martin Massey was by any measure, a remarkable man. He was wounded three times in three separate conflicts, the first of which, in the First World War, almost killed him. Brought down in flames by one of Germany’s great aces, Werner Voss, he somehow recovered from his horrific, life-threatening injuries to continue his flying career in the Royal Air Force, only to be nearly killed once more in the Palestine Emergency of 1936, when his life was saved by the thin metal of his cigarette case. Then, at the age of 44 and having risen through the ranks to Group Captain, he was shot down over Holland on the second of the Thousand Bomber Raids in June 1942.Massey was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to Stalag Luft III at Sagan. Here, he was to excel as the Senior British Officer, vigorously defending the rights of his fellow prisoners of war, the men now under his command. Respected and admired by his comrades and captors alike, fate handed to him the decision to authorise the Great Escape, the famous breakout from Sagan in March 1944.Too badly wounded to join the escape himself, Martin Massey was the man to whom the Germans first broke the news of the execution of fifty of those who had been recaptured. Repatriated to Britain because of his wounds shortly afterwards, it was Massey who brought home the details of the murders which began the process of bringing the perpetrators to justice post-war.Decorated for his gallantry and leadership six times, men like Martin Massey come along only rarely. This book, using previously unseen documents and photographs, tells his story.

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Wing Commander Eric Benjamin was no stranger to danger or excitement. In an action-packed RAF career he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross twice for bravery under fire. Flying Fairey Battles, Lancasters, and De Havilland Mosquitoes as an elite Pathfinder Master Bomber, Eric once said of flying that there was no greater sport'.

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The Canadian contribution to the Second World War Allied bombing campaign, from the first days of the war to the last, proved instrumental in securing the defeat of Nazi Germany. Author and historian Ken Cothliff has pieced together the extraordinary stories of four Canadian volunteers who chose to fly 'Under the Maple Leaf'. There was no mandatory conscription in Canada. They chose to serve their country and the British Commonwealth in it’s time of greatest need, and the choice was theirs and theirs alone. Reg Lane joined Bomber Command relatively early and was in action by the autumn of 1941, rising from NCO pilot to become a‘Master Bomber’ with the elite Pathfinder Force. Jim Moffat, the ‘Evader’, ended his flying combat career after twelve operations, becoming a fighter on the European mainland with the Resistance. Steve Puskas’s comprehensive diaries and unpublished writings provide an extraordinary insight into his training as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, an experience familiar to many Commonwealth and British air crew. Bill Gracie, a Scot who had emigrated to Canada as a boy, was keen to take up the fight when the war began, with the sole aim of becoming aircrew. Sadly, he was one of the 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew, of which over 10,000 were Canadian, who never returned home. These young men volunteered three times; once to join up, the second time to go overseas, and the third to become aircrew. All came from different backgrounds and found life in the air force very different. With the exception of one man, all came home with their lives radically changed for ever. The debt owed to the people of Canada can never be forgotten. Ken Cothliff’s 'Under the Maple Leaf' is the story of a few of Bomber Command’s many young Canadian aircrew, all of whom made their contribution to the eventual victory over tyranny.

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The raid on the secret rocket research establishment at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast in August 1943 has gone down in history as one of the most successful and remarkable of the war. The site was virtually obliterated, and the Germans forced to move rocket production and development elsewhere. But it came at a terrible cost. More than 40 bombers and 215 RAF aircrew failed to return. After the war, the bodies of many of those who were killed were recovered by the Missing Research and Enquiry Service (MRES) and buried in Commonwealth war graves. But not all. A series of mishaps and miscommunication led the MRES to search in the wrong place. Funds to continue the search dried up. And with the site falling into Russian hands, and access to British and US search parties severely restricted, the search ultimately had to be called off, and the remaining men commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial as having no known grave. But some of the missing men are still there, waiting to be found.With a foreword from Peenemünde raid veteran pilot George Dunn DFC L d'H, and illustrated with a wealth of previously unpublished photographs, Sean Feast and Mike McLeod tell the story of the forgotten graves of Peenemünde, the search to discover the truth about their final resting place, and the chance that their bodies may yet be discovered and returned.

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Donald Osborne Finlay, a sporting name familiar to households in the 1930s, was Britain’s greatest athlete of the time; a hurdler whose triumphant exploits graced the sports pages and newsreels week after week. From a humble family background, he became a double Olympic medallist, European Champion, and Empire (Commonwealth) Champion; he also won the AAA 120 yards hurdles an unprecedented seven times in succession. Reporters ran out of superlatives to describe him. At the three Olympic Games in which he ran, he captained the British team twice, including the Berlin Games of 1936 in front of Adolf Hitler. An all-round sportsman, both track and field events came naturally to him as did football. He played for the country’s top amateur sides and turned out for Tottenham Hotspur in wartime matches.All the more remarkable is that Finlay competed at the very highest levels of international athletics at the same time as pursuing his demanding career as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot. Joining up as a boy apprentice in the mid-1920s, he qualified as a pilot before the start of the Second World War and found himself in the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire, commanding a squadron, during the Battle of Britain. Shot down and wounded in the Battle, he was soon back in the air and rose through the ranks to command a fighter wing in Burma, ending the war with several ‘kills’ to his name, as well as a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Force Cross to add to the medals won under less lethal circumstances on the running track. As a commander, his insistence on strict discipline often led to conflict with his subordinates, but there is no doubt that his methods got results.After the war, still serving in the RAF, Don returned to competitive athletics and was as fast and successful, if not more so, than ever. By then he was in his 40s, but age was no barrier and several of his greatest hurdling victories came when others would have been long retired from the track, against athletes often twenty years his junior. Don Finlay’s life was to end prematurely, and under tragic circumstances, but his legacy lives on as one of the finest athletes ever to wear the vest of Great Britain, as well as one of ‘The Few’.

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Wayne K. Blickenstaff, known as 'Blick', was a stalwart of the 350th Fighter Squadron of the 353rd Fighter Group based at Goxhill, Metfield and Raydon, England as part of the Eighth Air Force prosecuting the strategic air campaign against Germany. As an original cadre member, he rose steadily through the ranks from a Second Lieutenant Element Leader to Flight Leader, Squadron Operations Officer, Squadron Leader and finally to a Lieutenant Colonel and Group Operations Officer. Flying the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang, he completed two tours of operations between 1943 and 1945 encompassing 133 missions and claims of 10 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air. His double 'ace' status included a Me262 jet fighter and the destruction of five aircraft in one mission, giving him rare 'ace in a day' status.Ace in a Day is Blick's honest and gritty personal memoir of his air war in Europe. His vivid writing places you in the cockpit as he and his comrades battle the enemy in the skies or attack ground targets across Europe. His account conveys a true sense of just how dangerous flying World War II fighters, in all weather conditions, really was. It was not just the enemy that could kill you. A moment's inattention, overconfidence or simple mistake could be deadly. As a keen observer of character, Blick's pen portraits of those around him, including many of those who sadly did not survive the war, offer a poignant and deeply moving tribute to those with whom he served.Anyone wanting an understanding of the dynamics of a working fighter squadron at war and the dilemmas faced by those in command should read this book. Supported by an impressive array of original documentation, photographs, and detailed appendices, including Blick's never-before published wartime journal, Ace in a Day provides a unique and valuable insight into the harsh realities of the air war in Europe from one of the 'Mighty Eighth's' top fighter pilots.

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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 discover the fate of his aircraft. Undeterred by the skepticism of family, friends and military archivists, Reg uses the internet and his natural aptitude for problem solving to piece together exactly what happened to the Halifax he last saw plunging towards a Berlin suburb, 61 years previously. Reg’s persistence leads to a most remarkable discovery – something he never anticipated. His life is changed. Perhaps, more importantly, the discovery will change for the better the lives of others he has yet to meet.This uplifting biography traces the extraordinary course of events that led Reg to make two important vows. One of these, made during the London Blitz, was to join the Royal Air Force and fight to defend his country. The second was to solve an intriguing mystery – something which others had tried, but failed, to do. The events described here are a testimony to Reg’s courage and steely determination, and also reflect the extreme sacrifices made by Bomber Command aircrew during the Second World War. What makes this compelling story quite unique is the juxtaposition of past and present, for without twenty-first century technology and the cooperation of a number of highly motivated individuals, both British and German, the real truth about the last flight of LW337 would never have been discovered.

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