Robert F. Ashby

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Before the Second World War Robert Ashby was the Librarian and Museum Curator at Hitchin in Hertfordshire. He was a fluent German speaker and, on a library exchange to Leipzig in 1936, saw Hitler at close quarters. During the war he served first in the Royal Army Service Corps but volunteered for flying duties, training as a pilot with the Glider Pilot Regiment. Flying military gliders, he landed howitzers, jeeps and other vital equipment for the D-Day, Arnhem, and Rhine Crossing operations. After the war he returned to Hitchin and went on to a distinguished career in the library service, end-ing as County Librarian of Surrey. He wrote this memoir for his family.