Men of the Bombers: Crews Who Fought & Won the Campaign

Ralph Barker

Nov 2005 · Casemate Publishers

About this ebook

This is a selection of ten remarkable true accounts of unusual incidents and happenings to Bomber Command aircrew during World War Two. It covers operations of varying natures, such as one of the first leaflet dropping raids during the 'Phoney War' when the elderly Whitley bomber proved to be a nightmare on long flights and when the crews suffered more from lack of oxygen and heating than from enemy action. The fascinating story of a famous MP who used his influence to become a tail gunner at the age of 55 and who lost his life trying to stop German Panzers before Dunkirk proves remarkable reading and a famous name in cricket, Bill Edrich, recounts his days flying low-level daylight raids in Bristol Blenheims during 1941. Then there is a young New Zealander, Jimmy Ward, who climbed out onto a Wellington bomber's wing at considerable altitude to extinguish an engine fire and how despite his own modesty he was awarded a VC. Other stories tell of amazing escapes from burning aircraft, the heroism of aircrew who sacrificed their own lives so that others may survive and how a mid-upper gunner took the controls of a Mitchell B-25 to pilot her safely home.

About the author

Ralph Barker joined the RAF in 1940 as a radio operator/air gunner and logged 2,000 flying hours before he was demobilised in 1946. He later rejoined the RAF and retired from it in 1961 to write full-time as a journalist on several leading British national newspapers. He has many well-known books to his name as has been widely acclaimed by reviewers.

Ralph Barker, passed away on the 20th June, ages 93.