Pat Cunningham Knihy

The book offers firsthand accounts from aircrew members detailing their harrowing wartime experiences. It vividly captures the challenges they faced, including treacherous weather conditions, mechanical failures, and the constant threats from enemy forces such as searchlights and flak. These recollections provide a gripping insight into the bravery and resilience required to navigate the dangers of aerial combat during the war.

Includes bibiliographical references (p.188) and index.

This comprehensively researched and well-illustrated survey guides the walker to all the 110 crash sites in the White Peak

The young men who flew with RAF Bomber Command in World War Two were a complex mixture of individuals but they all shared the gift of teamwork.

"It is a fact of life that in Aviation fliers receive the plaudits while those who enable them to fly remain unsung, even though no flier has ever been in any doubt as to the debt owed to the supporting, non-flying personnel. As the narratives in this book show, although the aircrew faced opposition each time they flew, it was far from common for supporting personnel too to find themselves enduring direct enemy fire. The narratives also reflect the diversity of roles undertaken by ground personnel, not only in the beleaguered United Kingdom and later in wartorn Europe, but also in the desert and jungle campaigns of the Middle- and Far-Eastern theatres. There are glimpses too of the world outside the Service, with a schoolgirl recalling the warmth between her family and the exiled foreign flier billeted upon them; and another woman visiting operational stations as a civilian aircraft-repair worker. What all the narratives show is that it is the ground personnel who underpin RAF formations. This book then, is a tribute to the supporting and non-operational personnel of the World War Two RAF"--Publisher description

This comprehensively researched and well-illustrated survey guides the walker to the thirty-nine air-crash sites – representing forty-two aircraft – in the northern region of the High Peak, from Glossop to Huddersfield. Between them, the High Peak and White Peak areas have accounted for over 300 air crashes [301 crash sites, 308 aircraft]. Most of these occurred because aircrews had unwittingly drifted over high ground. It is appreciated that many walkers prefer to have tangible evidence to seek out. Part One, therefore, contains eighteen sites where surface evidence exists. Part Two, contains similar details of the twenty-one sites where no such evidence remains. All, however, have been equally authenticated, and in each case a proven ten-digit grid reference is given. Part Three aims to save walker-investigators time and effort, detailing fourteen sites which, though often found in print, are spurious.