Tom Cornish flew Spitfires and had lightning reactions to match. His brother, Mike, flew a Lancaster bomber, and was safe and steady as a rock. Too bad that Tom had a nasty habit of referring to “flying tramcars” and lumbering Lancs”, or saying fighter pilots needed twice the skill and courage of bomber crews. To […]
Sergeant Owain Howell was too headstrong for the R.A.F. Charged with insubordination, he found himself consigned to the ground crew, servicing the planes he had once hoped to fly. Travelling with his crew to Africa, he was shot down and stranded in Italy. Squadron leader Leonard Brinkley, on the other hand, was a cool and […]
They said H.M.S. Adventurer was a haunted ship; haunted by a shadowy figure bent on sending the carrier to the bottom with all her planes and crew. Mystery lights flashed at night to guide enemy bombers to her. Men were struck down in shadowy corners and never knew what hit them. Guns jammed, planes blew […]
In 1938, Germany invaded Poland…but Poland did not give in without a fight. Captain Micha Polanski and the Polish Air Force fought valiantly against the might of the Luftwaffe. But when his brother was slaughtered, Micha swore vengeance against the plane that cut him down, the plane that bore the symbol of a Black Eagle […]
Squadron Leader Marko Vida was a talented and fiercely fascist pilot. Backed by the Nazis, Vida and his Black Sun Squadron dominated the skies over Croatia… …Or so they thought. A Partisan Air Force made up of old, stolen fighters and led by Flight Officer Zlatan Pavic and Flying Officer Petar Milic would not hand […]
Tactics had changed, machines had improved, but Group Captain Roland Bird knew from his Great War experiences that efficiency came with practice and attention to detail. His new command could expect a hard taskmaster, especially the crew of Wellington S-Sugar, who had crashed his car at their first meeting.
Flight Sergeant Nick Nolan was a reliable, thoughtful type. He yearned to fly a fighter like a Spitfire or Hurricane but his superiors reckoned he “didn’t have enough fire in his belly”. Nonetheless, he undoubtedly had skills so Nick was selected to transport secret agents and supplies into German-held France. Aboard his Westland Lysander, the […]
Shooting up unsuspecting British trucks in a captured Hurricane was just one of the dirty tricks played by Erich von Werner — a pilot hated by his own men as much as by the British. The feeling was mutual, particularly for Luftwaffe pilot Carl Lutz and Ted Bull of the R.A.F. — two men linked […]
As a tail gunner on an Avro Lancaster bomber, Sergeant Lex Duffield was used to danger in the sky. However, more even danger soon appeared in the unlikely form of a fellow Lanc rear gunner — the reckless and short-tempered Sergeant Tommy Deakin — and inevitably they clashed. Fate soon intervened and they faced a […]
Flak, machine-guns, searchlights, enemy fighters — these the Nazi pilots knew and could handle. These things were dangerous, all right — but they didn’t turn a man’s blood to ice water in his veins, they didn’t paralyse his hands on the controls in utter, freezing terror… But the new weapon used by the R.A.F. night-fighters […]
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