Danny
Editing the Stafford memoirs has been a great privilege and I have done my best to find if there were any more. In the course of this research I found that hundreds of aircrew still lie in the former East Germany, their names remembered on the Runnymede Memorial. Presumably a few charred remains and scraps of alloy would not have been noticed in this vast devastated area, while many aircraft would have buried themselves far down in soft ground.
The disastrous Munster sortie he describes in such detail is similar to many described in Pierre Clostermann's book The Big Show, which emphasises the major role played by the Tempests of 122 Wing and the stress of countless low-level attacks on heavily defended trains, transport and airfields. The change in Jack Stafford's writing is very noticeable as the war progressed and perhaps the loss of his friends inspired this detailed account. You'll be glad to know he rediscovers his joie de vol through the gliders … tomorrow.
The Fw44 is only TM size and must be delightful to fly with its 155hp engine compared to the Gipsy Major's 120 on a good day. A few are still flying. When launched in 1934 the Fw56 Stosser must have been hot stuff compared to the RAF's biplanes but the German dictionaries translate 'stosser' as 'shover' or 'pusher' in English.
Walter
We get worried when our senior staff go quiet for a while, we hope you're still working on your Beaufighter memoirs?