SECOND WORLD WAR BOMBER COMMAND
SEAN FEAST REVEALS THE TRAGIC FATE OF THREE RAF BOMBER COMMAND AIRCREW AND THE POSSIBLE GRAVE OF A FOURTH MAN, WHO WENT MISSING AFTER THE LAST MAIN FORCE RAID ON ESSEN IN DECEMBER 1944.
When the final roll of the dead was taken at the end of World War Two, 57,861 men of Bomber Command had been killed in action. The vast majority had been victims of flak or nightfighters and a smaller number through collisions, technical failures or sheer bad luck, such as ‘friendly fire’or being struck by bombs and incendiaries from above.
Escaping from a burning bomber was often, similarly, a matter of luck. Aircrews practised escape drills regularly, sometimes blindfolded, but nothing could prepare them for the reality of a heavy bomber falling through the night sky, usually ablaze, awash with hydraulic fluid and hampered by the dead or dying. For those who did take a leap into the dark, there was a brief moment of respite, of peace from the noise and the terror, until they reached the ground, and the almost inevitable capture.
Of those shot down over occupied lands, some, of course, managed to avoid being taken prisoner, chancing their luck and finding a helping hand from willing loca…
