Dead men tell no tales… until now. Imagine setting out in a bomber, night after night, knowing that the might of the Luftwaffe is hell-bent on killing you… …parachuting from a blazing bomber into enemy territory, having just bombed a nearby city… …deciding, day by day, which of your crews you will send out, probably to their deaths, not knowing their fate until they let you know… …having a date with the Chop Girl… …spending the rest of time haunting your former airfield after failing to return from those ops. What’s not to like? In the Second World War more than sixty thousand aircrew of Bomber Command lost their lives on operations or in training. Mostly young and energetic, they died suddenly and traumatically. No spirits could have more reason to remain attached to the places where they lived the last few weeks or months of their earthly lives before they disappeared into the night. Simon Hepworth’s latest paranormal tales put a new spin on the sightings, myths and legends of phantom airmen at old RAF stations across England. Contents: Return Trip, Long Descent, Duty Carried Out, Chop Girl, Return of the Brylcreem Boys. NB: 'Return Trip' and 'Long Descent' were previously published separately on Kindle and Audible.

The Dark Part of the Sky: A Collection of Bomber Command Ghost Stories

Literature & Fiction

Hepworth, Simon

Genre Fiction

Mention the War Limited

During the Second World War, Sydney Wigginton ("Wig") was a senior officer in Britain's irregular warfare unit, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). This is his previously untold story. Wig was an orphan but, thanks to an unknown benefactor, he received a decent education. After a career in public transport logistics, in 1939 he joined up. After obtaining a commission, and active service with the 8 th Army in North Africa, in late 1942 he joined SOE's Cairo office where he established the air operations unit. He was soon responsible for deploying missions to support the resistance across the Axis occupied Balkans. Later, he moved to southern Italy from where the scope of his role extended to the whole of south and Eastern Europe. In the final year of his life, as an acknowledged air operations expert, he was deployed to the Far East where he provided support to the resistance as they made a major contribution to the Allied liberation of Burma. In September 1945, Wig went on one last mission. On his way back, his plane crashed in the Burmese jungle. Two months later, his second son was born and was raised to think that he shouldn't miss what he never had. 65 years pass and the same son, who has lived in blissful ignorance of his father, finds an old tin box belonging to his recently deceased mother containing papers from the 1940s. On investigation, he is drawn into a world of which he knew nothing. This book tells the story not only of the life and death of his father, but the intriguing world of irregular warfare during World War Two. For the author, it is also an account of personal discovery.

Wig's Secret War: The Biography of an SOE Air Operations Manager

History

Wigginton, Gavin

Military

Flight Lieutenant Humphrey Phillips DFC, MiD (twice) had an exciting war. Originally trained as a flight mechanic, he became one of the very first of the new breed of flight engineers. Posted initially to 103 Squadron, he was allocated immediately to the Conversion Flight, helping to convert new crews from two engines to four. While ‘instructing’, he was flight engineer to many of the famous names of the time – ‘Daddy’ Lashbrook, Peter Robinson, and Harry Drummond – and flew in the first two of the historic, showpiece 1000 Bomber raids against Cologne and Essen as part of a scratch crew of tour-expired instructors. Posted to 1656 Conversion Unit he became the flight engineer leader, flying regularly with the unit’s Commanding Officer, David Holford, Flight Commander, Eric Campling, and two ‘crazy’ Australians – ‘Bluey’ Graham and ‘Shorty’ Fahey who became legends in the RAAF for their flying skills and mad antics. He also survived a number of scrapes with novice pilots (many who went on to have distinguished careers) and was Mentioned in Despatches for inventing two devices to instruct new engineers on the Lancaster’s fuel and hydraulics systems. Keen to operate, he was eventually hand-picked by Wing Commander Philip Haynes to join his crew for a tour with 626 Squadron, at the height of the Battle of Berlin. He was also the squadron’s flight engineer leader. When not flying with the CO, he flew with both Flight Commanders, and on one operation his Lancaster was struck by incendiaries, seriously injuring the mid upper gunner and obliging them to crash land. His crew included the famous naturalist, Eric Simms, who was an early ‘star’ of the BBC. Humphrey survived his tour, was awarded the DFC, and returned to instructing, being once more Mentioned in Despatches with 1668 HCU before the war’s end.

A Thousand and One: A Flight Engineer Leader's War from the Thousand Bomber Raids to the Battle of Berlin

Feast, Sean

Phillips DFC, FLt Humphrey

Bealine Charlie Oscar: The Mystery of Flight CY284

Biographies & Memoirs

True Crime

207 Squadron (Bomber Command Squadron Profiles)

Ward, Chris

The Incidental Navigator: A Mauritian Navigator in Bomber Command

Rault QC, Sir Maurice

Leaders & Notable People

619 Squadron came into existence when Bomber Command was expanding during the spring of 1943, its high number, like that of the famous 617 Squadron, reflecting the fact that it was not a reforming unit, but was brand new with no history behind it. Like some other squadrons created within Bomber Command at this time, and later, in the autumn of 1943, it would not be awarded an authorised crest and motto during its relatively brief period of service, arriving on the operational scene as it did with just two years of conflict left. The squadron was formed at Woodhall Spa in April 1943 under the banner of 5 Group, and it would serve as a standard "squadron of the line", beginning operations in June 1943, during the most intense weeks of the five-month-long Ruhr offensive. From that point on, the squadron took part in all the main bombing campaigns, including the devastating four-raid series against Hamburg under Operation Gomorrah at the end of July. The squadron then participated in attacks against Italy, Peenemünde and the start of the Berlin offensive in August. Autumn saw the crippling attacks on Hannover, Mannheim and Kassel in September and October, followed by the main Winter Offensive from November 1943 to the end of March 1944, including the sixteen further raids on Berlin. At the start of 1944, the squadron moved to Dunholme Lodge, from where it participated in the Transportation Plan and other pre- and post-invasion campaigns, including those against oil refineries, railways and flying-bomb storage and launching sites along with tactical support for the ground forces. The squadron played a full part in the second Ruhr offensive from October 1944, during which period the Command bludgeoned its way across Germany delivering the heaviest blows of the war against its industrial and communications systems. The squadron took up residence at Strubby towards the end of 1944 and remained there until the end of hostilities. 619 Squadron ended the war with a fine record of service, having made a telling contribution to Bomber Command's part in the ultimate victory. Chris Ward's Bomber Command Squadron Profiles series continues with a comprehensively-illustrated, in-depth operational history of this fine unit.

619 Squadron (Bomber Command Squadron Profiles)

301 304 305 Polish Squadrons: 301 (Pomeranian) Squadron, 304 (Silesian) Squadron, 305 (Ziemia Wielkopolska) Squadron (Bomber Command Squadron Profiles)

Korcz, Grzegorz

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