World war 2 pilot biography books

Your book Flight Path to Murder recounts the investigation into the brutal murder of a pilot who made an emergency landing on German soil in 1944.

How unusual was it for a pilot to be savaged by civilians?

It’s estimated that around 800 Allied airmen were lynched during the Second World War. At the beginning of the war it was not the norm – far from it. Almost everyone at the start had a moral high ground – the RAF, for example, were forbidden to bomb near civilians.

World war 2 pilot biography books free

However this was steadily eroded and by 1945 there had been massive strategic bombing across Germany, and so any airmen who did come down had the potential to be in serious trouble. And a lot of propaganda had been built up in Germany about the Terrorfliegers [terror fliers].

It got to a point where the Nazi hierarchy told the police not to interfere if civilians were attacking airmen. Unfortunately the pilot Bill Maloney came down somewhere where the people were ou