FOREWORD

by

Group Captain Dudley Burnside DSO OBE DFC (RAF Rtd),

wartime Officer Commanding 427 and

195 Squadrons, Bomber Command.

It was indeed a great privilege to lead a squadron in Bomber Command in 1942–43 and again in 1944–45 and to share the appalling dangers of continuous raids over Germany with that magnificent band of young aircrews whose devotion to duty and outstanding courage are legion and of which the author of this book was a typical example.

As his Commander-in-Chief, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Sir Arthur Harris, put it ‘these young men carried unceasing war to the enemy against fearful odds for over five years, and for much of that time alone whilst we lacked the means for any other attack’.

I know only too well the experience of being coned by searchlights, of being attacked by nightfighters and blasted by flak. But to read such a first-hand account of the terrifying moments immediately following a fatal direct hit, of the aircraft turning upside down before spiralling vertically to earth is not only to bring sharply into focus the incredible luck of those of us who survived one or more tours of operations physically unscathed but to pay the greatest tribute and admiration to those such as Tony Johnson who, having miraculously baled out of his doomed Wellington aircraft, continued to display incredible courage and endurance in very hostile enemy territory.

His description of life as a prisoner of war and his extraordinary adventures during his two escapes will surely serve to remind future generations of the unsurpassed devotion to duty and heroism of wartime aircrews against great odds both in the air and on the ground.

Dudley Burnside

Windsor