Table Of ContentOther volumes in this series
RAF BOMBER COMMAND: REFLECTIONS OF WAR
Volume 2: Live To Die Another Day (June 1942 – summer 1943)
Volume 3: Battleground Berlin (July 1943 – March 1944)
Volume 4: Battles With the Nachtjagd (30/31 March – September 1944)
Volume 5: Armageddon (27 September 1944 – May 1945)
First Published in Great Britain in 2011 by
Pen & Sword Aviation
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS
Copyright © Martin W Bowman, 2011
9781783032716
The right of Martin W Bowman to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
PROLOGUE - Almost an Epitaph
CHAPTER 1 - ‘I’ll Gladly Pay You Tuesday’
CHAPTER 2 - ‘Gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon’
CHAPTER 3 - The Moon Period
CHAPTER 4 - Fighting Fire With Fire
CHAPTER 5 - The Whirlwind
Index
We were men before a firing squad of erratic marksmen.
Kill us tonight or tomorrow night they might;
kill us by next month they could scarcely fail to do.
No Moon Tonight by Don Charlwood
Acknowledgements
Gebhard Aders; Harry Andrews DFC; Frau Anneliese Autenrieth; Mrs Dorothy
Bain; Günther Bahr; Charlie ‘Jock’ Baird; Harry Barker; Irene Barrett-Locke;
Raymond V Base; Don Bateman; Steve Beale; A D ‘Don’ Beatty; Jack Bennett;
Andrew Bird; Peter Bone; Alfons Borgmeier; Jack Bosomworth; Len Browning;
Don Bruce; George Burton; Jim Burtt-Smith ; Maurice Butt; Philip J Camp
DFM; City of Norwich Aviation Museum (CONAM); Bob Collis; Jim Coman;
B G Cook; John Cook DFM; Rupert ‘Tiny’ Cooling; Dennis Cooper; Ray
Corbett; Coen Cornelissen; Leslie Cromarty DFM; Tom Cushing; Hans-Peter
Dabrowski; Rob de Visser; Dr. Karl Dörscheln; J Alan Edwards; Wolfgang
Falck; David G Fellowes; Elwyn D Fieldson DFC; Karl Fischer; Søren C
Flensted; Vitek Formanek; Stanley Freestone; Ian Frimston; Prof. Dr Ing. Otto H
Fries; Air Vice Marshal D J Furner CBE DFC AFC; Ken Gaulton; Jim George;
Margery Griffiths, Chairman, 218 Gold Coast Squadron Association; Group
Captain J R ‘Benny’ Goodman DFC* AFC AE; Alex H Gould DFC; Hans
Grohmann; Charles Hall; Steve Hall; Jack F Hamilton; Eric Hammel; Erich
Handke; James Harding; Frank Harper; Leslie Hay; Gerhard Heilig; Bob
Hilliard; Peter C Hinchliffe; Neville Hockaday RNZAF; Werner ‘Red’
Hoffmann; Ted Howes DFC; Air Commodore Peter Hughes DFC; John
Anderson Hurst; Zdenek Hurt; Ab A Jansen; Karl-Ludwig Johanssen; Wilhelm
‘Wim’ Johnen; Arthur ‘Johnnie’ Johnson; John B Johnson; Graham B Jones;
Hans-Jürgen Jürgens; Erich Kayser; George Kelsey DFC; Les King; Christian
Kirsch; Hans Krause; Reg Lawton; J R Lisgo; Chas Lockyer; Günther Lomberg;
Peter Loncke; George Luke; Ian McLachlan; Nigel McTeer; B L Eric Mallett
RCAF; Len Manning; The Honourable Terence Mansfield; Eric Masters;
Bernard ‘Max’ Meyer DFC; Cyril Miles; Colin Moir; Frank Mouritz; Friedrich
Ostheimer; Maurice S Paff; Simon Parry; Path Finder Association; Wing
Commander David Penman DSO OBE DFC; Richard Perkins; Peter Petrick;
Karl-Georg Pfeiffer; Eric Phillips; Vic Poppa; John Price; Stan Reed; Ernie
Reynolds; Peter Richard; Albert E Robinson; Heinz Rökker; Squadron Leader
Geoff Rothwell DFC; Fritz Rumpelhardt; David M Russell; Kees Rijken; Eric
Sanderson; Klaus J Scheer; Dr. Dieter Schmidt-Barbo; Karl-Heinz
Schoenemann; Jerry Scutts; Johan Schuurman; Group Captain Jack Short; Leslie
R Sidwell; Don L Simpkin; SAAF Assn; Albert Spelthahn; Dr Ing. Klaus Th.
Spies; Dick Starkey; Squadron Leader Hughie Stiles; Mike ‘Taff’ Stimson; Ted
Strange DFC; Maurice Stoneman; Ken Sweatman; Paul Todd; Fred Tunstall
DFC; Hille van Dieren; George Vantilt; Bob Van Wick; Andreas Wachtel;
DFC; Hille van Dieren; George Vantilt; Bob Van Wick; Andreas Wachtel;
Georg Walser; David Waters; H Wilde; John Williams; H J Wilson; Henk
Wilson; Geoffrey and Nick Willatt; Dennis Wiltshire; Louis Patrick Wooldridge
DFC; Fred Young DFM; Cal Younger.
I am particularly grateful to my friend and colleague Theo Boiten, with whom
I have collaborated on several books, for all of the information on the Nachtjagd
or German night fighter forces contained herein. And, aviation historians
everywhere owe a deep sense of gratitude to his and all the other valuable
sources of reference listed in the end notes; in particular, those by the
incomparable W R ‘Bill’ Chorley, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt and
Oliver Clutton-Brock. Finally, all of the late authors’ books, as listed, who are
beyond compare. This book is dedicated to their memory and all of the casualties
in the Appendices.
