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This is the fascinating true story of RAF Sutton Bridge. Between 1926 and 1946, the base saw the development and implementation of a training system that turned inexperienced pilots into Top Guns. 400 graduates and staff fought with The Few to win the Battle of Britain.
What turns an ordinary man into an extraordinary one? The answer lies in the stories of six teenage volunteers for Second World War aircrew who exchanged school uniform for Air Force Blue and took a giant step into the unknown. Based on original research from flying log books, diaries and family archives, this collection of true tales describes the men's training for those coveted 'Wings'; the nervous excitement of that first sortie over enemy territory; and flying into the hell of an enemy flak barrage and fighters. From the skies over Europe to jungles and deserts, all endured hardship, adventure and danger. They experienced action under enemy fire, wounds, burns and crash-landings, escape and evasion in occupied territory, and the privations of life as a POW. Seventy years on and these brushes with death are by any measure hair-raising encounters that turned adolescents into men – some of whom survived the war, while others paid the ultimate price.
Fly shotgun with the pilots and crews of both sides who fought in the air at night over England during World War I and World War II. In two world wars, a corridor from The Wash to Birmingham was turned into a fierce battleground. The air route from Germany and the occupied countries through this corridor, to targets right across the industrial heartland of England, became a three-dimensional combat zone that proved to be as grim a killing ground by night as anywhere else in the land. No Place for Chivalry encapsulates the story of the air defense of England against attack by night. By taking the area covered by RAF Wittering and Digby sectors, looking at the action of night fighter squadrons...
Danger and excitement, courage and selflessness, and gripping stories of life and death in the air: Lady Luck took these heady ingredients and mixed them into the lethal cocktail that is military flying in peace and war. From WWI biplanes to twenty-first-century fast jets, mid-air collisions and many other crashes, hundreds of airmen from all corners of the world left their mark--quite literally--on the landscape and collective memory of the East Midlands. This book ensures these airmen cease simply to be names carved on a cold memorial stone or entries in some dusty, long-forgotten documents. They come vividly alive again, with backgrounds and personalities and patriotic or duty reasons for being where they are when tragedy struck. Dying To Fly brings their courage and human-interest stories into the light of day, remembers them with respect and pays tribute to their passing.
The stories of three individual careers combine seamlessly to tell the dramatic story of the RAF from the era of biplanes and into the jet age of the Cold War.
The stories of three individual careers combine seamlessly to tell the dramatic story of the RAF from the era of biplanes and into the jet age of the Cold War.
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This “incredibly engaging and deeply personal” story of World War II pilot Joe Singleton “draws the reader into the dangerous world of night fighting” (Manhattan Book Review). Joe Singleton was an unlikely hero. A junior manager at a paints and varnish company at the outbreak of war, he was surprised to discover he had a hidden talent for flying. Despite RAF Fighter Squadrons crying out for replacements after the carnage of the Battle of Britain, Joe was posted to the rapidly developing world of night fighting. He flew first Defiants, then Beaufighters, finding himself in the thick of the very earliest stages of ground-controlled interception and airborne radar engagements. His skill...
A remarkable and powerful story of indomitable human spirit, passion and courage. In 1941 when Keith Watson, a teenage postal clerk from country Queensland, enlisted in the RAAF, he had absolutely no idea what he was getting himself into. The following four years were an adrenaline-filled ride of love, loss, mateship, ambition, courage and sacrifice, all recorded in an intimate 800-page diary. This is an account of how war tests character and puts the young on an accelerated path to maturity. From childhood and his first inspirational flight to his emergence as an elite Path Finder Force pilot, Keith’s story is compelling and tragic, yet uplifting. He confronts constant death and injury, c...
Why is bureaucracy known as red, not yellow or blue tape? What is haywire and why do we go it? Why is a yawn infection? Who was Parker and why is he so Nosy? These are just some of the burning issues that have been exercising the minds of Daily Mail readers in recent years, and 1001 of the most entertaining have been reproduced in this bumper collection. Not all of the questions featured will have been nagging away at you for years - the scrap metal value of the Eiffel Tower, for example; and some of the answers throw up intriguing alternatives (does the expression "peg out" have its origins in the game of cribbage or in grave digging practices?); but for those who are inveterate devourers of trivia teasers and fascinating facts, The Daily Mail's Answers to Correspondents is a veritable feast.