Does anyone know when it became the practice to hold coroners' inquests into the deaths of British servicemen in battle, or on active service? There must have been a mighty host of coroners around during the two World Wars!
Were there, for example, inquests into the deaths of all hands on the British cruiser (HMS Curacao??) when she was escorting one of the Queen liners in WW2 and was cut down by her "charge"?
To my mind the Oxford coroner seems to be a rather pompous official who seems unable to get his mind around the tensions and difficulties facing the A10 pilots. The vindictive tone adopted by much of the press comment seems unlikely to encourage the USAF to help out the British army when it finds itself in tight spots in future.