Moonlight Over England The Story Of One Nightfighter Pilot

Author : Eric P. Donald
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1483620999
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Moonlight over England the Story of One Nightfighter Pilot written by Eric P. Donald and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I came across an old photo recently and pondered the people in it. The person in the centre was my late brother, Norman G. Donald of the RAF. The other figures in the photo I do not know, though I suspect they were his flight instructors at North Battleford, Canada. The photo bears my brothers script KING-PINS ALL!N. BATTLEFORD. After qualifying as a pilot, he sailed back to England and was posted to RAF Hunsdon just north of London in 1942. He was soon flying Douglas Havocs and Bristol Beaufighters. Night fighters were a new school of defence, but it was hopeless finding enemy aircraft in the dark. The Turbinlite device was fitted to the Beaufighters and Havocs, and the idea was to find the enemy somehow, guided by ground control using heavy ground radar units (too heavy to carry in aircraft), turn on the Turbinlite searchlight, and illuminate the enemy aircraft. A single-engined Hurricane fighter flying alongside then shot down the enemy aircraft. It did help to see the target as this same sky was full of thousands of Allied aircraft, all trying to avoid each other.

Author : Peter Spoden
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Enemy in the Dark written by Peter Spoden and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Wilhelm Johnen
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1784382604
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Duel Under the Stars written by Wilhelm Johnen and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The enemy bomber grew larger in my sights and the rear gunner was sprayed by my guns just as he opened fire. The rest was merely a matter of seconds. The bomber fell like a stone out of the sky and exploded on the ground. The nightmare came to an end."In this enthralling memoir, the author recounts his experiences of the war years and traces the story of the ace fighter pilots from the German development of radar to the Battle of Britain.Johnen flew his first operational mission in July 1941, having completed his blind-flying training. In his first couple of years he brought down two enemy planes. The tally went up rapidly once the air war was escalated in spring 1943, when Air Marshal Arthur Harris of the RAF Bomber Command began the campaign dubbed the Battle of the Ruhr.During this phase of the war Johnens successes were achieved against a 710-strong force of bombers. Johnens further successes during Harriss subsequent Berlin offensive led to his promotion as Staffelkapitan (squadron leader) of Nachtjagdgeschwader and a move to Mainz. During a sortie from there, his Bf 110 was hit by return fire and he was forced to land in Switzerland. He and his crew were interned by the authorities. The Germans were deeply worried about leaving a sophisticatedly equipped night fighter and its important air crew in the hands of a foreign government, even if it was a neutral one. After negotiations involving Gring, the prisoners were released.Johnens unit moved to Hungary and by October 1944 his score was standing at 33 aerial kills. His final one came in March the following year, once Johnen had moved back to Germany.

Author : Martin Bowman
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1783831928
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book RAF Fighter Pilots in WWII written by Martin Bowman and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a pulsating account of the young RAF fighter boys who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Defiants in England against the Luftwaffe and from Malta 1940-45 against the Regia Aeronautica. Their story is told using combat reports and first person accounts from RAF, German and Commonwealth pilots who fought in the skies in France in 1940, in England during the Battle of Britain, and in the great air offensives over Occupied Europe from 1942 onwards. Chapters include the stories of Wing Commander D. R. S. Bader, Wing Commander Adolph Gysbert 'Sailor' Malan, Oberleutnant Ulrich Steinhilper, Flight Lieutenant H. M. Stephen, Squadron Leader Robert Stanford Tuck, 'Johnny' Johnson, Squadron Leader M. N. Crossley, Squadron Leader A. McKellar, 'Cowboy' Blatchford and Squadron Leader D. H. Smith, an Australian veteran of the Battle of Malta and many others whose names have now become legendary.

Author : Stephen Harris
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN 13 : 1458756971
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Under A Bomber's Moon written by Stephen Harris and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They were the best of enemies dedicated, skilled and deadly. In the night skies above wartime Germany an RAF navigator-bomber from New Zealand and a Luftwaffe pilot seek out their targets, testing the gap between success and their own destruction as they cross each others paths. The odds are heavily against either of them making it through the w...

Author : Dennis Gosling
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1526739097
Total Pages : 351 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Night Fighter Navigator written by Dennis Gosling and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2010-02-28 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A British Royal Air Force navigator shares his experiences during World War II in this compelling memoir. Yorkshireman Dennis Gosling joined the RAF on 24 May 1940. Having completed his training, he was posted to 219 Squadron flying the night-fighter version of the Beaufighter from Tangmere in 1941. As a navigator, he became part of a two-man team that would endure throughout his first operational tour. In those infant days of radar interception, he honed his skills in the night skies above southern England and the English Channel but without a firm kill. On 12 February 1942, he and his pilot were instructed to pick up a brand-new aircraft and deliver it to North Africa, flying via Gibraltar, a hazardous flight at extreme range. In March the crew were posted to 1435 Flight of 89 Squadron with the task of defending the besieged island of Malta. The flight’s four Beaufighters flew into incessant bombing raids by the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force. Because of these raids the damage to aircraft on the ground was devastating and the flight was often reduced to a single serviceable aircraft. Gosling’s first success came in April 1942 with a confirmed kill, and then shortly after his twenty-first birthday on 13 May, a triumphant night on the seventeenth brought three certain kills and one damaged enemy aircraft. After being the squadron’s virgins, they shot into the record books—Gosling’s pilot being awarded the DFC. Flight Sergeant Gosling, however, received no award. At this stage he became somewhat embittered by the class system he felt was operated by the RAF. Having endured the torment of constant bombardment, serious stomach complaints (even flying with a bucket in the aircraft) and near starvation, he completed his tour and was repatriated to the UK via Brazil and Canada in the Queen Mary. After a spell instructing new night navigators, he joined 604 Squadron and in December 1943 he was promoted to Warrant Officer. February 1944 saw the squadron reequipped with the Mosquito and assignment to 2 Tactical Air Force in preparation for D-Day. Now once again he was flying initially over southern England and the Channel. The squadron became mobile after the landings and were based in various captured airfields in France, but the conditions were so inadequate for operations that the squadron returned to English bases, from where they operated over and beyond the advancing Allied troops. Eventually, after having been awarded a much-deserved DFC, he accepted the King’s Commission. This autobiography is written as stated by the author, “I want my readers to relive my experiences as they happened to me—to take their hands and have them walk beside me. I want them to feel the joy and the pain, share the laughs and the heartache, take pleasure in the triumphs, agonise with me when things went wrong and understand why my Service years influenced so much of my life.” He has succeeded magnificently

Author : Elizabeth Halls
Publisher : Fonthill Media
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Flying Blind written by Elizabeth Halls and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-05-17 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Flying Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1944-10 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Cecil Frederick Rawnsley
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Night fighter written by Cecil Frederick Rawnsley and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Andy Saunders
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 191162184X
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lone Wolf written by Andy Saunders and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2020-01-19 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thrilling WWII biography tells the incredible true story of one of the Royal Air Force’s greatest flying aces. During the Second World War, Flight lieutenant Richard Playne Stevens had an extraordinary career as a Royal Air Force nightfighter. His contemporaries called him Cat’s Eyes for his rare ability to see in the dark, but after achieving a record-breaking fourteen victories in the skies—all without the aid of radar or another crew member—he earned the moniker Lone Wolf. He was also awarded a distinguished Service Order and a Distinguished Flying Cross & Bar for his service. Flt. Lt. Stevens achieved his legendary status through skill, instinct and innate marksmanship. Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Secretary of State for Air during the war, called him “one of the greatest nightfighter pilots who ever fought in Fighter Command.” Now his incredible story is told in full thanks to decades of research by military aviation historian Terry Thompson.