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Imagine you are an RAF torpedo pilot in World War Two, sent on missions so dangerous that you're later likened to the Kamikaze. Suicide wasn't a recognised part of the objective for British airmen, yet some pilots felt they had accepted certain death just by climbing into their cockpits. There were times in 1942 when Arthur Aldridge felt like this. At the age of 19, this courageous young man had quit his studies at Oxford to volunteer for the RAF. He flew his Bristol Beaufort like there was no tomorrow - a realistic assumption, after seeing his best friend die in flames at the end of 1941. Aldridge was awarded a DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) for his bravery on the same strike on a German ...
The acclaimed chronicler of RAF history has compiled ninety-one obituaries of outstanding aviators covering the period from 2007 to the end of 2017. With a focus on personnel from a range of air forces, including the RAF, USAF, RCAF, RNZAF and SAAF, there are a number of fascinating and distinguishable lives to read about. Those featured include MRAF Sir Michael Beetham, the longest-serving Chief of Air Staff in the RAF (apart from its founder Lord Trenchard); Brigadier General Paul Tibbets who commanded the USAAF bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945; and Wing Commander “Dal” Russel, a highly decorated wartime Canadian fighter pilot, whose logbook recorded kills in the Battle of Britain and the Normandy invasion. There is also Lettice Curtis, the first woman qualified to fly a four-engine bomber and who by the end of the Second World War had flown over 400 heavy bombers, 150 Mosquitos and hundreds of Hurricanes and Spitfires as part of her role in the Air Transport Auxiliary. The book includes a foreword written by former Chief of Air Staff, Sir Richard Johns.
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Roy Nesbit's highly illustrated history of Coastal Command's 217 Squadron the squadron in which he served gives a first-hand insight into the hazardous low-level missions the squadron flew against enemy shipping and ports during the Second World War. He chronicles the squadron's operations from the outbreak of war when it patrolled in Avro Ansons over the Western Approaches to the English Channel. Then came the most intense period of its wartime career when, flying Beauforts, it concentrated on minelaying and attacks on shipping along the west coast of German-occupied France. It also mounted daring raids on huge U-boat bunkers and other enemy installations. The story of these dangerous opera...
Aviation historians will know that the Avro Lancaster bomber is the most famous aircraft to have fought with RAF Bomber Command during World War Two. They will know too that, of the 7,366 that were built, over 3,400 were lost on operations and a further 200 plus were destroyed and written-off in crashes. Operational sorties flown totalled more than 156,000, carrying over 600,000 tons of bombs to targets all over Europe. But this came at a terrible cost. With extensive losses on some night operations, occurring when bombers were pitted against a dedicated German night-fighter arm (as well as anti-aircraft fire) it is not surprising, or even incredible, that just 35 Lancasters managed to compl...
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