| Synopsis: |
A fascinating study of the military airfields in Britain during the Second World War which focuses on their location, the international pilots and crews who served there, as well as the civilians, the planes they flew and the stories of what happened there. Did you know? There is a memorial at the site of the Woolston aircraft factory, which was involved in the development of the Supermarine Spitfire, to R.J. Mitchell who designed the Spitfire Stanley Park is now part of Blackpool Zoo and one of the old aircraft buildings is now the elephant house The 'Carpetbaggers' (801st Bombardment Group, Provisional), part of the USAAF Mighty Eighth, were based at Harrington Airfield, near Kettering Both Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, VC OM DSO DFC, the famous bomber pilot, and Clark Gable served at RAF Marston Moor The TV presenter, Hughie Green, was a ferry pilot based at Largs. His logbook is one of the artefacts held at St Columba's Parish Church Comedian Frank Muir was assigned to the No 1 Parachute Training School at Ringway.As well as taking slow-motion film of the parachute drops, he took photographs of SOE agents for their faked identity cards People would sit on the tails of the planes to prevent them from overturning on grass fields. One pilot forgot that WAAF Margaret Horton was on the tail of his Spitfire - and took off Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, an escaped German prisoner of war, tried to steal an aircraft from Hucknall in December 1940. He pretended to be a Dutch pilot This is the second in the War in Britain Series. The first was Prisoner of War Camps in Britain During the Second World War, also by Jon & Diane Sutherland. |