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112 pages

English

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The crews of Bomber Command are often described as the bravest of the brave. They knew the risks. Night after night they flew into the dark and smoke-filled skies of the continent. The odds on them returning safely were frighteningly low. They had youth on their side: the average age was 22. Their motto was 'Press On Regardless'. No less than 23 Victoria Crosses were won by men from Bomber Command. This book tells the story of the actions behind those awards. Some, such as Guy Gibson, are already legendary heroes. Others, such as Hughie Edwards, are less well known. Edwards led a near suicidal daylight raid on the docks at Bremen in 1941. Only eight aircraft survived and all these were badly damaged by flak. The chimney pot height they had flown at was witnessed by the telegraph wires still wrapped around one plane's rear wheel. This book is a testament to all those who flew with Bomber Command, which lost 55,000 of its members during the war.

Sujets

Histoire

Reino Unido

World War II

United Kingdom

History of Europe

Great Britain

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Publié par	Countryside Books
Date de parution	01 octobre 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781846749087
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0420€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Bomber Command
The
Victoria Cross Raids
Martyn Chorlton
COUNTRYSIDE BOOKS
3 Catherine Road
Newbury
Berkshire
RG14 7NA
To view our complete range of books, please visit us at
www.countrysidebooks.co.uk
First published 2014
Text © 2014 Martyn Chorlton
The cover photograph shows Canadian Warplane Heritage’s Avro Lancaster B Mk X, KB726 which is dedicated to the memory of Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski and is familiarly known as the ‘Mynarski Memorial Lancaster’. Photograph by Doug Fisher.
The right of Martyn Chorlton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder and publishers.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84674 322 1
Produced by The Letterworks Ltd., Reading
Typeset by KT Designs, St Helens
Printed by Berforts Information Press, Oxford
Contents
Introduction
  1     Carnage over the Albert Canal
Donald Garland and Thomas Gray (12 May 1940)
  2     The Dortmund-Ems Canal
Roderick ‘Babe’ Learoyd (12/13 August 1940)
  3     Inferno over Antwerp
John Hannah (15/16 September 1940)
  4     Daylight over Bremen
Hughie Edwards (4 July 1941)
  5     Out Onto the Wing
James Ward (7/8 July 1941)
  6     Lone Attack on Singora
Arthur Scarf (9 December 1941)
  7     The Lancaster’s Baptism of Fire
John Nettleton (17 April 1942)
  8     Cologne Raid in ‘D’ for Dog
Leslie Manser (31 May 1942)
  9     The Faithful Crew
Rawdon Middleton (29 November 1942)
10     Massacre over Chouigui
Hugh Malcolm (4 December 1942)
11     The Kiwi Great Escaper
Leonard Trent (3 May 1943)
12     The Dam Busters
Guy Gibson (16/17 May 1943)
13     Target Turin
Arthur Aaron (12/13 August 1943)
14     Press On Regardless
William Reid (3 November 1943)
15     Against All Odds
Cyril Barton (31 March 1944)
16     Just One More ‘Op’
Norman Jackson (26 April 1944)
17     The ‘Selfless Recipient’
Andrew Mynarski (13 June 1944)
18     Second to None
Leonard Cheshire (July 1944)
19     With the Pathfinders
Ian Bazalgette (4 August 1944)
20     ‘ Oboe ’ VC
Robert Palmer (23 December 1944)
21     Putting Your Life on the Line
George Thompson (1 January 1945)
22     Springbok Pathfinder
Edwin Swales, SAAF (23/24 February 1945)
Appendix
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
These are the stories of the 23 men who won Britain’s highest military accolade for Bomber Command
For Valour
Since the Victoria Cross was first instituted on 29 January 1856, the medal has been awarded 1,357 times, the most recent was gazetted on 22 March 2013, posthumously to Lance Corporal J T D Ashworth for his gallantry in Afghanistan.
Being the youngest of three services it is understandable that fewer VCs have been awarded to airmen of the RFC (Royal Flying Corps), RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service), RAF (Royal Air Force) and FAA (Fleet Air Arm). In fact, just 51 ‘aerial’ VCs were awarded between 1915 and 1946 and out of this small number, 23 were won by men from Bomber Command or credited with flying bomber aircraft. The latter caveat allows me to include the Blenheims of Flying Officer A S K Scarf in the Far East and Wing Commander H G Malcolm in North Africa.
One of the reasons for the relatively high number of VCs awarded to airmen flying in bombers would be the fact that these aircraft had a crew and, if at least one airman survives to tell the story of their plane’s demise, or the action it was involved in, then an award can be issued to suit the incident that took place. There must have been hundreds of occasions when actions as equally brave took place, even surpassing those covered in this book, but none of the crew lived to tell the tale. Those airmen who survived their ordeal to receive the greatest accolade Britain could offer were very often unassuming individuals, embarrassed by the media attention showered upon them and expressing a ‘just doing my job’ attitude. A good example of this actually took place during an investiture at Buckingham Palace when Group Captain Leonard Cheshire said to the King, ‘This chap stuck his neck out more than I did!’ He was referring to Warrant Officer Norman Jackson who was being awarded the VC during the same ceremony, but the King, taking Cheshire’s point, was forced to stick to protocol and award the Group Captain his VC before the Warrant Officer! In fact, Cheshire is the only individual within this book that received the VC for his outstanding operational career, while all the others are for individual acts.
The range of actions within this book begins with the fruitless Battle of France in May 1940 through to the final stages of the bomber offensive over Germany in February 1945. Several VC awards came about through volunteering for a particular operation, while others were simply the result of being caught up in the mêlée of unpredictable events which hang over any operation in a bomber from the moment it lifts off the runway to the point it returns.
The very first story covered is that of Garland, Gray and their Air Gunner Reynolds, who volunteered without hesitation to attack a bridge at Veldwezelt. It may not ever have crossed their minds that they would not return from such a raid, their confidence in their own ability to see the job through regardless typified the spirit of virtually all bomber crews during the Second World War. They were completely unaware of how strongly defended the bridges were and were not party to the poor Allied decision that gave the Germans sufficient time to protect them. With the exception of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who not only helped to pick the men who would take part in Operation Chastise , but also helped plan the raid itself, all of the men who were awarded the VC had no control of the situation they found themselves in.
The chapters are laid out in the date order when the action actually happened, not when the VC was awarded or gazetted, as in both latter cases, many of these happened during the post-war period when POWs (Prisoners of War) returned home to tell their stories. For example, Squadron Leader Leonard Trent’s experience over Amsterdam in May 1943 was not relayed by him until May 1945 and it was another ten months before the VC was awarded.
Many of the stories covered in this book could easily have ended in a completely different way and it was down to the decisions made by the individuals concerned that dictated whether they would live or die. For example, in the case of Flight Sergeant A L Aaron, if he had just rested following his appalling injuries, he would most likely have survived. His final efforts to help his crew sapped every last ounce of energy from his damaged body. If Flight Sergeant (later Pilot Officer) Middleton had decided to make for Switzerland rather than trying to get his crew back home to England, all would most likely have survived but would have been interned until the end of the war. It was a fighting spirit and determination, ‘to get his crew home’ which made him choose the much tougher option. Pilot Officer A C Mynarski could have easily vacated his turret and dived straight out of the bomber’s rear exit door and survived, but his loyalty to his fellow crewman stopped him in his tracks and his efforts cost him his life, while the man he was trying to save lived.
Out of this small group of 23 airmen, all from a diverse range of backgrounds and varying levels of education, all had one thing in common; a determination to serve their country the best way they could. Whether this be England, Scotland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand or South Africa, they all had one purpose in mind and that was to make the best contribution they could in the fight against Hitler. Not one of them would have embarked on their RAF career with the idea of winning the VC or any other kind of medal; they had all volunteered to become aircrew and they all took part in the Second World War to fight shoulder to shoulder.
Of this small group, thirteen, Aaron, Barton, Bazalgette, Garland, Gray, Malcolm, Manser, Middleton, Mynarski, Palmer, Scarf, Swales and Thompson were awarded the VC posthumously. Three, Gibson, Nettleton and Ward all received their VC in person but were later killed on operations, the former’s demise still causes conjecture to this day. The remainder, with the exception of Hannah who passed away in 1947, comprising Cheshire, Edwards, Jackson, Learoyd, Reid and Trent, all passed away between 1982 and 2001. Bravery, driven by total loyalty to their fellow crew members and combined with a sense of duty, are the common denominators in describing these men.
We should never forget the contribution that Bomber Command made during the Second World War, nor criticise those who took part in the bombing, often with clinical precision, with the targets selected for them. The 23 men in this book not only represent the 55,000 men who were killed during Bomber Command operations, but also the hundreds of thousands who survived; we should not forget any of them.
Martyn Chorlton
1
Carnage over the Albert Canal
Donald Garland and Thomas Gray (12 May 1940)
Brothers in the RAF
F rom February 1938, 12 Squadron had been equipped with the Fairey Battle light bomber, the first machine to enter operational service with the RAF, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The Battle was, by 1940, desperately out of date. The single engine had to cope with a crew of three, plus a bomb load; it had a .303 defensive machine gun and was no match for the Luftwaffer fighters.
Just three months after 12 Squadron took delivery of its first Battle on 11 February, a new pilot officer by t