Flying Lawyer
5th Jun 2014, 22:30
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Just published -
Mosquito Down! by Frank Dell is a 'Must read' for anyone interested in training and flying operationally with the RAF 1941-1946, Bomber Command ops and flying the de Havilland Mosquito - the 'Wooden Wonder' of World War 2.
Frank Dell was shot down over Germany in 1944 while flying with the RAF Light Night Striking Force. His account of the years leading up to the mission in which his Mosquito was hit, being thrown through the roof of his spinning and disintegrating aircraft, tumbling through the air and then descending by parachute for about 20 minutes is fascinating and would alone have made an excellent book but his memoir doesn't stop there - far from it!
Battered, bruised and bloodied but not seriously injured, he made his way across Nazi Germany to occupied Holland to try to meet the Allied advance. Despite a number of very narrow escapes, he successfully evaded capture and reached Holland five days later where he was given refuge and hidden by Dutch families.
Posted as 'Missing', and presumed dead, he had joined a Dutch Resistance group. He used Morse Code to guide in air-drops of weapons and was part of a force of 75 awaiting orders to “make a nuisance of ourselves behind enemy lines.”
He continued to try to link up with British forces and pass on intelligence about a very early mobile V2 rocket launch-pad he had seen while in Münster and, after some months working with the Resistance group and continuing to evade capture, he eventually succeeded - an armoured car nosing up a road turned out to be the lead recce vehicle of the British 2nd Army.
After being interrogated by Military Intelligence in Holland and again by MI9 when he returned to Britain he was allowed a few days with his family - who until just two days earlier didn't know he was still alive - before rejoining his Squadron.
Demobbed in 1946, he joined BEA and retired 30 years later as Chief Pilot (Technical) of BA's European Division. He became a member of the Board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of the RAF Escaping Society and was Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (now the Honourable Company of Air Pilots (http://airpilots.org)) 1988 - 89.
One of the many strengths of this excellent book is that he wrote down his experiences not long after returning to Britain. Until now, they have remained his private recollections but the notes he made while events were still fresh in his mind enable him to give fascinating and vivid accounts of his experiences in what is a commendably modest, gripping and inspirational book.
Frank Dell will be 91 next month - although when I had the privilege of meeting him in Australia last November I thought he was 10 years younger.
He dedicates his book - an incredible but true account of survival against the odds - to the courageous Dutch families who risked death to help and hide many hundreds of Allied airmen and airborne soldiers,
and to his navigator, Flying Officer Ron Naiff, who did not survive the attack on their aircraft: "He was my friend and I remember him every day."
Tudor Owen
Frank Dell interviewed at the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial in June 2012 : 2knvZd9fIiU
Just published -
Mosquito Down! by Frank Dell is a 'Must read' for anyone interested in training and flying operationally with the RAF 1941-1946, Bomber Command ops and flying the de Havilland Mosquito - the 'Wooden Wonder' of World War 2.
Frank Dell was shot down over Germany in 1944 while flying with the RAF Light Night Striking Force. His account of the years leading up to the mission in which his Mosquito was hit, being thrown through the roof of his spinning and disintegrating aircraft, tumbling through the air and then descending by parachute for about 20 minutes is fascinating and would alone have made an excellent book but his memoir doesn't stop there - far from it!
Battered, bruised and bloodied but not seriously injured, he made his way across Nazi Germany to occupied Holland to try to meet the Allied advance. Despite a number of very narrow escapes, he successfully evaded capture and reached Holland five days later where he was given refuge and hidden by Dutch families.
Posted as 'Missing', and presumed dead, he had joined a Dutch Resistance group. He used Morse Code to guide in air-drops of weapons and was part of a force of 75 awaiting orders to “make a nuisance of ourselves behind enemy lines.”
He continued to try to link up with British forces and pass on intelligence about a very early mobile V2 rocket launch-pad he had seen while in Münster and, after some months working with the Resistance group and continuing to evade capture, he eventually succeeded - an armoured car nosing up a road turned out to be the lead recce vehicle of the British 2nd Army.
After being interrogated by Military Intelligence in Holland and again by MI9 when he returned to Britain he was allowed a few days with his family - who until just two days earlier didn't know he was still alive - before rejoining his Squadron.
Demobbed in 1946, he joined BEA and retired 30 years later as Chief Pilot (Technical) of BA's European Division. He became a member of the Board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of the RAF Escaping Society and was Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (now the Honourable Company of Air Pilots (http://airpilots.org)) 1988 - 89.
One of the many strengths of this excellent book is that he wrote down his experiences not long after returning to Britain. Until now, they have remained his private recollections but the notes he made while events were still fresh in his mind enable him to give fascinating and vivid accounts of his experiences in what is a commendably modest, gripping and inspirational book.
Frank Dell will be 91 next month - although when I had the privilege of meeting him in Australia last November I thought he was 10 years younger.
He dedicates his book - an incredible but true account of survival against the odds - to the courageous Dutch families who risked death to help and hide many hundreds of Allied airmen and airborne soldiers,
and to his navigator, Flying Officer Ron Naiff, who did not survive the attack on their aircraft: "He was my friend and I remember him every day."
Tudor Owen
Frank Dell interviewed at the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial in June 2012 : 2knvZd9fIiU