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Life And Death In Bomber Command
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Book Synopsis Life and Death in Bomber Command by : Tony Redding
Download or read book Life and Death in Bomber Command written by Tony Redding and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 631 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life and Death in Bomber Command is an intimate account of the human cost of the bombing offensive against Nazi Germany and targets in occupied Europe. The story of Lancaster rear gunner W/O Sidney Knott, DFC, unfolds within a detailed assessment of the bomber war by author Tony Redding. Sidney Knott survived sixty-four operations. The first tour, beginning in January 1943, included many 'Battle of the Ruhr' targets. His aircraft attacked Duisburg five times and Essen on three occasions. They also participated in three raids on Berlin. In April 1944, Knott began a second tour as a Pathfinder. Another thirty-five operations included attacks on German cities, but the focus was the assault on V1 and V2 sites and French rail targets prior to D-Day and the Normandy landings. This unique combination of dramatic narrative and strategic overview includes controversial views about post-war perspectives on the morality of area bombing and its contribution to victory in Europe. It is a moving account of squadron life and describes how every individual lived with unspoken fears. The story is complete as it also portrays how former aircrew struggled to set aside traumatic wartime experiences and adjust to life on 'civvy street'.
Book Synopsis Flying for Freedom by : Tony Redding
Download or read book Flying for Freedom written by Tony Redding and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bomber Command written by Max Hastings and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This award-winning classic of WWII military history chronicles the Royal Air Force’s bombing campaign against Germany. RAF Bomber Command’s air offensive against the cities of Nazi Germany was one of the most epic campaigns of World War II. The struggle began meekly in 1939 with only a few aircraft—Whitleys, Hampdens, and Wellingtons—flying blindly through the night on their ill-conceived bombing runs. It ended six years later with 1,600 Lancasters, Halifaxes, and Mosquitoes, equipped with the best of British wartime technology, blazing whole German cities in a single night. In Bomber Command, originally published to critical acclaim in the UK, famed British military historian Sir Max Hastings offers a captivating analysis of the strategy and decision-making behind one of World War II’s most violent episodes. With firsthand descriptions of the experiences of aircrew from 1939 to 1945—based on one hundred interviews with veterans—and a harrowing narrative of the experiences of Germans on the ground during the September 1944 bombing of Darmstadt, Bomber Command is widely recognized as a classic account of one of the bloodiest campaigns in World War II history. Winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize
Book Synopsis Best of Times, Worst of Times by : Jeff Steel
Download or read book Best of Times, Worst of Times written by Jeff Steel and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-09-29 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joe’s love of flying and adventure led him to volunteer for active service: dropping bombs on Nazi Germany. Tom’s hatred of Hitler’s vile regime brought him to the same point. The war was to throw Joe and Tom together. Within a few desperate seconds, on the way to Berlin a night-fighter attack would rip them apart. Best of Times Worst of Times tells the story of two very different men but with a single vocation: to put the Nazi war machine out of action. Each would describe themselves as ordinary men. For each, in their different ways, their wartime experience was extraordinary. For Joe fate would bring the best of times. He would cross the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth. He would find the woman to whom he would be married for the rest of his life. As a gunner on a Lancaster Bomber he would enjoy the camaraderie of a band of brothers on a wartime bomber station and high status among the wartime population. For Tom, fate decreed the worst of times. He would be thrown out of an exploding plane to survive; then be sentenced to death by the French resistance for being a Nazi stooge. He would know the horror of betrayal by someone he trusted and thrown into the hands of the Nazi secret police. He would know abject fear of the living death within the Buchenwald concentration camp. He would become one of very few people ever to leave it – and that in the most dramatic of circumstances. A gripping true story of war, betrayal and survival constructed from personal experience, meticulous research and eye-witness accounts.
Download or read book Bomber Offensive written by Arthur Harris and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir Arthur Harris - Bomber Harris - remains the target of criticism and vilification by many, while others believe the contribution he and his men made to victory is grossly undervalued. He led the men of Bomber Command in the face of appalling casualties, had fierce disagreements with higher authority and enjoyed a complicated relationship with Winston Churchill. Written soon after the close of World War 2, this collection of Sir Arthur Harris's memoirs reveals the man behind the Allied bombing offensive that culminated in the destruction of the Nazi war machine but also many beautiful cities, including Dresden.
Book Synopsis Bomber Squadron by : Martyn R. Ford-Jones
Download or read book Bomber Squadron written by Martyn R. Ford-Jones and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: — Previously unpublished personal diaries reveal the day-to-day life of British aircrews during the Second World War, based on their personal diaries, which were written at the time — Revisiting a revised look at a popular out of print publication with fresh material such as new characters and chapters — Historically rich in detail with previously unpublished photographs of many of the characters involved — A welcome return of an updated version of a book first published over thirty years During the Second World War, thousands of young men volunteered for service with the RAF. Some became fighter pilots, but a great many more were destined to be trained as bomber aircrew – pilots, navigators, wireless operators, bomb aimers, gunners and flight engineers. On completion of their training, a number of these recruits were posted to XV Squadron, a highly-regarded frontline bomber squadron, which had been formed during the First World War. Bomber Squadron: Men Who Flew with XV Squadron relates the personal stories of a small number of these men, giving an insight to their anxious moments when flying on operational sorties, staring death in the face in the form of prowling night-fighters and ground fire, and relaxing during their off-duty hours. The book also reveals the motivations, emotions and personal attitudes of these men who flew into combat on an almost nightly basis. Their stories encompass the whole six years of the war where XV Squadron flew various bomber types, including Fairey Battles, Bristol Blenheims, Vickers Wellingtons, Short Stirlings and Avro Lancasters.
Book Synopsis Bomber Command: Reflections of War, Volume 5 by : Martin W. Bowman
Download or read book Bomber Command: Reflections of War, Volume 5 written by Martin W. Bowman and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-07-10 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the fifth release in a series that provides a comprehensive insight into all aspects of RAF Bomber Command in World War Two. It begins in late September 1944 when the Allied Bomber Offensive was at its height, and takes us through to the end of the conflict. The crews' personal narrative puts you at the centre of each intense, isolated and harrowing episode of aerial combat as the pilots of Bomber Command attempted to stave off fears of tragic injury and death from fighters, flak and incessant operational pressure during raids on German cities, waterways, ports and oil installations. This continued until the Luftwaffe and the Nachtjagd effectively ceased to exist, their fuel supplies exhausted, their losses in airmen reaching an unsustainable level, and their aircraft and airfields decimated as a result of 24-hour Allied bombing.Often, it was the most exciting feats of bravery, determination and daring that were marked by the most catastrophic losses. Approximately 62 per cent of the 125,000 men who served as aircrew in Bomber Command during the war became casualties. Of these, 52 per cent were sustained while flying operations and a further ten per cent while on non-operational flights in Britain. It should never be forgotten that RAF Bomber Command played a hugely significant role in securing victory for the Allies, carrying out mass raids by day and night that eventually culminated in them 'beating the life out of Germany'. Yet its crews were denied the campaign medal that they so richly deserved, until very recently. Here, Martin Bowman attempts to provide an adequate tribute to the men of Bomber Command, using first-hand accounts to capture an authentic commentary of the times at hand in a release that is sure to capture the imaginations of all aviation enthusiasts.
Book Synopsis Bombing Germany: The Final Phase by : Tony Redding
Download or read book Bombing Germany: The Final Phase written by Tony Redding and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-02-28 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During 1942 and 1943 the striking power of RAF Bomber Command was transformed by the arrival of heavy bombers, advanced navigation and blind bombing systems, and new tactics to concentrate the bombers over the target and swamp the German defences. By October 1944 most of Germany's cities were in ruins, yet the bombing continued to intensify, reaching unprecedented levels in the final seven months of the air campaign. The value of further area raids was questioned during the opening months of 1945, yet the Allies destroyed the remaining cities in a bid to hasten the end of the war. The handful of German cities still largely unscathed in early February 1945 included Dresden, which was obliterated on 13 February. Ten days later, the South German city of Pforzheim was destined to suffer the same fate.??This book commemorates the efforts of the aircrew members who risked their lives, consolidating a host of intriguing first-hand accounts. It also considers Pforzheim as a representative community under National Socialist rule. The city's survivors remember the horror of the raid and its aftermath, including eventual occupation by French Colonial troops and, subsequently, American forces. Tony does an admirable job of presenting historical context when considering actions in times of extreme trauma and his narrative offers an intriguing, engaging and poignant evocation of the closing months of Bomber Command's war.
Download or read book Lancaster Target written by Jack Currie and published by Crecy. This book was released on 2020-02-17 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a welcome reissue of a book which has been described as one of the best accounts about life in Bomber Command during World War II. Lancaster Target is the classic story of one crew’s fight to survive a full tour of operations in the night skies of wartime Europe. Flying Lancaster bombers from RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire between 1943 and 1944, Jack Currie chronicles the life and death struggles against flak, night fighters and perilous weather with clarity and feeling, whilst capturing the ‘live for the moment’ spirit of off-duty escapades. Jack Currie DFC served as a stretcher bearer and later ambulance driver during the London Blitz before gaining his wings in the USA. Having completed his first perilous operational tour of 30 missions in Lancaster’s, he went on to serve as a Pathfinder Mosquito pilot. He remained in the RAF after the war eventually reaching the rank of Squadron Leader. After he left the service, he became a renowned aviation writer and broadcaster and appeared in a number of TV and video productions.
Download or read book Bomber Command written by Roddy MacKenzie and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roddy MacKenzie’s father served in Bomber Command during the Second World War, but like so many brave veterans who had survived the war, he spoke little of his exploits. So, when Roddy started on his personal journey to discover something of what his father had achieved, he uncovered a great deal about the devastating effectiveness of Bomber Command and the vital role it played in the defeat of Third Reich. He realised that the true story of Bomber Command’s achievements has never been told nor fully acknowledged. Roddy became a man on a mission, and this startlingly revealing, and often personal study, is the result. Bomber Command: Churchill's Greatest Triumph takes the reader through the early days of the Second World War and introduces all the key individuals who turned the Command into the war-winning weapon it eventually became, as well as detailing the men and machines which flew night after night into the heart of Hitler’s Germany. The main focus of his book is the destruction and dislocation wrought by the bombing to reduce, and ultimately destroy, Germany’s ability to make war. In his analysis, Roddy dug deep into German archival material to uncover facts rarely presented to either German or English language readers. These demonstrate that Bomber Command’s continual efforts, at appalling cost in aircrew casualties and aircraft losses, did far more damage to the Reich than the Allies knew. Roddy’s father served with the Royal Canadian Air Force and Roddy naturally highlights its contribution to Bomber Command’s successes, another aspect of this fascinating story which the author believes has not been duly recognized. Bomber Command: Churchill's Greatest Triumph will certainly raise the debate on the controversial strategy adopted by ‘Bomber’ Harris and how he was perceived by many to have over-stepped his remit. But most of all, this book will revise people’s understanding of just how important the endeavours were of those men who flew through the dark and through the searchlights, the flak, and the enemy night fighters, to bring the Second World War in Europe to its crushing conclusion.
Book Synopsis The Life And Death Of The Luftwaffe by : General Werner Baumbach
Download or read book The Life And Death Of The Luftwaffe written by General Werner Baumbach and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Life and Death of the Luftwaffe is the story of Germany’s bomber forces in World War II—the counterpart to the story of German fighter forces told by Adolf Galland in The First and the Last. Designated General of the Bombers—the highest post in the Luftwaffe bomber command—Werner Baumbach saw combat as a dive bomber pilot at Narvik and Dunkirk. Later he commanded the Luftwaffe forces in Norway, attacking Allied convoys on the Murmansk run, and led Germany’s bomber fleets on the Russian front and in the Mediterranean. An outspoken critic of the Luftwaffe blunders committed by Göring and Hitler, Baumbach was saved from dismissal only by his extraordinary record of leadership and courage. In The Life and Death of the Luftwaffe, he presents a rare inside view of German decisions and strategy, based on personal combat experience and official Luftwaffe files—from the blitzkrieg in Poland and the fall of France to the Battle of Britain, the siege of Stalingrad, and the collapse of German air power under the torrent of American bombing at the end of World War II.
Download or read book To Hell and Back written by Mel Rolfe and published by Grub Street Publishing. This book was released on 2008-10-30 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 memorial on the crash site. Others defy logic—like two men of the same crew who survived a terrible crash, neither aware of the other’s existence but both saved by the tolling of the same church bell. All are riveting. 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 step back into the war itself.
Book Synopsis The Greatest Escape by : Martin Barratt
Download or read book The Greatest Escape written by Martin Barratt and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-07-06 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of a wartime bomber, its crew and of a tantalizing detective story unfolding over nearly a quarter of a century of intensive research. It is also a story of courage, fortitude and endurance and of one man’s will to survive against seemingly insurmountable odds. Bomber Command’s horrific loss rate during the Second World War cannot be underestimated. Of the 120,000 young aircrew who served, 55,373 were to perish, most of them losing their lives over the night skies of Europe. The Battle of the Ruhr, the campaign to destroy the industrial heartland of Germany which raged between March and July 1943, was both savage in intensity and costly in terms of aircrew. Prospects for survival for anyone involved in operational flying with Bomber Command at that time were particularly bleak. Young aircrew could expect a lifespan measured in terms of weeks where seemingly only a fiery death in an exploding aircraft or captivity as a Prisoner of War awaited. It is with this period that the book is primarily concerned and, more specifically, with the crew of Halifax JB869 of 102 Squadron, of which the author’s father was the navigator, and its loss on the night of 4 May 1943. He survived baling out and, later, an attempted lynching on the ground to become a Prisoner of War. But his escape from his shattered aircraft was only the first of many episodes in his two and a half years of captivity that would see him pushed to the limits of endurance and face death more than once. Like so many veterans the author’s father chose not to speak about his wartime experiences until quite late in his life and it was only after his death and the chance discovery of an archive of letters, logbooks, accounts and other material that the full story of his incredible series of escapes came to light. Through extensive research, including face-to-face interviews and correspondence with a significant number of ex-aircrew, the author has painstakingly pieced together the complete story of the crew of this aircraft, identifying and contacting relatives of each crew member and, for some, bringing closure after decades of not knowing how (or in some cases where) their loved one had met their deaths.
Download or read book Bomber Command written by Martin Bowman and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This massive work provides a comprehensive insight to the experiences of Bomber Command's pilots and aircrew throughout WWII. From the early wartime years when the RAF's first attempts to avenge Germany's onslaught were bedeviled by poor navigation and inaccurate bombing, to the last winning onslaught that finally tamed Hitler in his Berlin lair, these volumes trace the true experiences of the men who flew the bombers. Hundreds of firsthand accounts are punctuated by the author's background information that puts each narrative into wartime perspective. Every aspect of Bomber Command's operational duties are covered; day and night bombing, precision low-level strikes, mass raids and operations throughout all wartime theaters. Contributions are from RAF personnel who flew the Command's different aircraft from the early Blenheims and Stirlings to the later Lancasters and Mosquitoes. Each volume is full of accounts that tell of the camaraderie amongst the crews, moments of sheer terror and the stoic humor that provided the critical bond. The five volumes of this work provide the most vivid and comprehensive work on the outstanding part played by RAF Bomber Command and their vital role in the destruction of the Third Reich.
Download or read book Tail-End Charlies written by John Nichol and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-04 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Night after night they stifled their fears and flew through flak and packs of enemy fighters to drop the bombs that would demolish the Third Reich. The airmen of the United States 8th Army Air ForceAmerican and British Bomber Command were among the greatest heroes of the Second World War, defying Hitler in the darkest early days of the war and taking the battle to the German homeland when no one else would. Toward the end of the conflict, too, they continued to sacrifice their lives to shatter an enemy sworn never to surrender. Blasted out of the sky in an instant or bailing out from burning aircraft to drop helplessly into hostile hands, they would die in their tens of thousands to ensure the enemy's defeat. Especially vulnerable were the "tail-end Charlies"---for the Americans, which meant two things: the gunners who flew countless missions in a plexiglass bubble at the back of the bomber, and the last bomber in the formation who ended up flying through the most hell, and for the British, the rear-gunners who flew operations in a Plexiglas bubble at the back of the bomber. Following their groundbreaking revelations about the ordeals suffered by Allied prisoners of war in their bestselling book, The Last Escape, John Nichol and Tony Rennell tell the astonishing and deeply moving story of the controversial last battles in the skies of Germany through the eyes of the forgotten heroes who fought them. "This is the best account that has been written of the heroic American and British bomber crews . . . the best of its kind." ---George McGovern "Rivaling the best of Stephen Ambrose's work, Tail-End Charlies gives a breathtakingly intimate look at the lives, loves, and deaths of the brave airmen of the greatest generation. This fascinating book is as valuable for its stories of joyous life on the ground as it is for its sobering tales of death in the air. You see the whole picture of the war here from the eyes of the strong young men who fought it." ---Walter J. Boyne, bestselling author of Beyond the Wild Blue "Adds new dimensions to the saga of the air war in Europe. The eyewitness accounts, reported within the context of the battle against Nazi Germany, provide a sense of the ordeals, the terror, the gore, and the heroism of ordinary men thrust into the savagery of aerial combat." ---Gerald Astor, author of The Mighty Eighth
Book Synopsis Bomber Command: Reflections of War, Volume 1 by : Martin W. Bowman
Download or read book Bomber Command: Reflections of War, Volume 1 written by Martin W. Bowman and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This massive work provides a comprehensive insight to the experiences of Bomber Commands pilots and aircrew throughout WWII. From the early wartime years when the RAFs first attempts to avenge Germanys onslaught were bedeviled by poor navigation and inaccurate bombing, to the last winning onslaught that finally tamed Hitler in his Berlin lair, these volumes trace the true experiences of the men who flew the bombers. Hundreds of firsthand accounts are punctuated by the authors background information that puts each narrative into wartime perspective. Every aspect of Bomber Command's operational duties are covered; day and night bombing, precision low-level strikes, mass raids and operations throughout all wartime theaters. Contributions are from RAF personnel who flew the Commands different aircraft from the early Blenheims and Stirlings to the later Lancasters and Mosquitoes.Each volume is full of accounts that tell of the camaraderie amongst the crews, moments of sheer terror and the stoic humor that provided the critical bond. The five volumes of this work provide the most vivid and comprehensive work on the outstanding part played by RAF Bomber Command and their vital role in the destruction of the Third Reich.
Download or read book Men of Air written by Kevin Wilson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 661 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bomber combat crews faced a wide array of perils as they flew 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. Thousands of young men were shot, blown up, or thrown from their planes five miles above the earth; and even those who returned faced the subtler dangers of ice and fog as they tried to land their battered aircraft back home.The winter of 1944 was the most dangerous time to be a combat airman in RAF Bomber Command. The chances of surviving a tour were as low as one in five, and morale had finally hit rock bottom. In this comprehensive history of the air war that year, Kevin Wilson describes the most dangerous period of the Battle of Berlin, and the unparalleled losses over Magdeburg, Leipzig and Nuremberg.Men of Air reveals how these ordinary men coped with the extraordinary pressure of flying, the loss of their colleagues, and the threat of death or capture. Brilliantly placing these stories within the context of The Great Escape, D-Day, the defeat of the V1 menace, and more, Wilson shows how the sheer grit and determination of these "Men of Air" finally turned the tide against the Germans.
