<div>Vivid World War II stories of the brave men of Bomber Command and their adventures from the bestselling author of To Hell and Back and Hell on Earth. Mel Rolfe brings the reader real-life stories of bomber command at war with his new book Flying into Hell. A journalist by profession, Rolfe has conducted his interviews and prepared the stories in such a way as to take the reader into the events as they happened. To read these accounts is to step back into the war itself . . . Returning to a French village three years after baling out from a blazing bomber, a former rear gunner was shown the site of his supposed grave. He had been so badly burned a French doctor had left him alone in a graveyard to die. He met again the brave people who had looked after him until he was well enough to join a group walking to freedom across the Pyrenees. Other stories include a bomber that came down so low over the sea to escape ack-ack guns that it struck the water and managed to claw its way back up into the sky; the Lancaster pilot who wore Hermann Goering&rsquo;s Iron Cross around his neck as a lucky charm; a gunner incarcerated in Buchenwald; and a flight engineer who lost his fingers to frostbite after the bomber&rsquo;s rear door was blown open. Many of these stories demonstrate the amazing resilience of the human spirit, and the unwavering courage of the young men who helped bomb the enemy into submission. They are illustrated with photographs, most of which have not been published before.</div>

Flying into Hell

<div>&ldquo;Expertly researched . . . 20 different narratives in which these heroes venture out night after night on sorties throughout World War II Europe.&rdquo; &mdash;Plane and Pilot Three weeks after Stirling air gunner Doug Fry was reported missing over Germany his mother was still clinging to the vain hope that he was alive. Then a neighbor said she had seen him in the cinema just down the road. The airman and his crew had been filmed for a Bomber Command documentary shortly before they took off from Mildenhall to attack Remscheid. Three hours later four of the crew were killed, but it was another two months after she had also seen the poignant film that widowed mother of eight Winnie Fry knew her nineteen-year-old son, though wounded, was still alive. Lancaster pilot Victor Wood&rsquo;s aircraft arrived too early over Gelsenkirchen when the target was shrouded in darkness and the Main Force was miles behind. His 12 Squadron bomber was suddenly struck with terrifying force by flak and turned upside-down. An engine was on fire, the unconscious mid-upper gunner, slumped in his turret, was being sprayed with petrol and their bomb-load had been struck by shrapnel. Could Vic Wood get his crew back to base safely? These are just two of twenty dramatic Bomber Command stories in Bomber Boys. Night after night, the young men, some just out of school, went off on sorties, having pushed to the back of their minds the unpalatable awareness that they might never see another dawn. If death did not find them on the first few terrifying sorties they grew up very quickly in order to fight another day.</div>

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Bomber Boys

<div>Twenty true stories of bravery, survival, and good and bad luck involving Bomber Command during World War II from the author of Flying into Hell. In their own words, the heroes of Bomber Command tell their harrowing stories . . . &ldquo;It is believed that when Dacey realized the aircraft was on fire he grabbed an extinguisher, hurried aft and tried, in vain, to put out the flames. Somehow he became trapped behind the spreading inferno and was unable to return to the cockpit for his parachute. Alone with his screams, he could do nothing except wait and die as his unsuspecting companions jumped into the cold night. It is likely that Dacey was already dead before the Halifax plunged into the ground and blew up, atomizing his body.&rdquo; &ldquo;We were marched to a deserted and tatty industrial area, into a short cu-de-sac, where most of the property was badly damaged. A factory wall stood across the bottom and they put us against it. A line of a dozen (German) soldiers stood pavement to pavement, rifles against their shoulders. A corporal stood near them with his hand up. Stan said to me in a low, horrified voice: &lsquo;They&rsquo;re going to shoot us.&rsquo;&rdquo; &ldquo;We could see the (Lancaster) wing flapping up and down. It could have broken off at any time and going through my mind was the thought that it probably would. But we pressed on. I took a realistic view. I knew the chances were against us getting back and this might be the time everything was going to end. But I didn&rsquo;t experience fear which interfered with what I had to do.&rdquo;</div>

Hell on Earth

<div>The author of Flying into Hell climbs into the cockpit with the pilots of Bomber Command for classic stories of gallantry in World War II. This new edition of Mel Rolfe&rsquo;s successful book contains twenty dramatic but true stories of Bomber Command adventures. Some of them defy belief&mdash;like the RAF bomb aimer who was blown out of his Liberator over Warsaw at 400ft without a parachute and made a poignant return in 1989 to witness the unveiling of a memorial on the crash site. Others defy logic&mdash;like two men of the same crew who survived a terrible crash, neither aware of the other&rsquo;s existence but both saved by the tolling of the same church bell. All are riveting. A journalist by profession, Rolfe has conducted his interviews and prepared the stories in such a way as to take the reader into the events as they happened. To read these accounts is to step back into the war itself.</div>

To Hell and Back

<div>The World War II exploits of the legendary RAF air gunner, &ldquo;a true hero who repeatedly cheated death,&rdquo; from the author of Flying into Hell (The Times). Born into grinding poverty in Scotland, Wallace McIntosh had not heard of Christmas until he was seven, and never celebrated his birthday until his late teens, but he could steal, kill and skin a sheep before he was twelve and snare anything that could be cooked in a pot. Leaving school at thirteen he was determined to escape the constant struggle to survive. Gunning for the Enemy tells the moving story of how the RAF finally accepted McIntosh after at first rejecting him, but then initially gave him the lowliest of jobs. Only by a fluke was he trained as an air gunner. During his time with 207 Squadron, based at Langar, Nottinghamshire and Spilsby, Lincolnshire, he flew over fifty sorties in World War Two. Although Bomber Command did not record details of &ldquo;kills&rdquo; by air gunners, Wallace, who shot down eight enemy aircraft with one probable, is widely believed to be its top sharpshooter and at one time he was its most decorated also. He had many hairy incidents and his prodigious memory for detail enables him to recall numerous amazing escapes from death and how each and every night he and his comrades dramatically took the war to the enemy. This is a story of outstanding courage, told with wit, pace and honesty by Mel Rolfe who has previously enjoyed acclaim with such books as To Hell and Back, Hell on Earth and Flying into Hell.</div>

Mel Rolfe
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Books By Mel Rolfe (4 Books)

Flying into Hell

Bomber Boys

Hell on Earth

To Hell and Back

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