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. 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 out for vengeance.
Leonard Cheshire, the author of Bomber Pilot was one of the most highly decorated members of the RAF. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the Order of Merit and he was made a life peer. Did he take to the skies like a duck to water?
Yes. He was unusual in that his Victoria Cross was awarded for continuous effort and courage, rather than for a particular act of bravery. Cheshire’s decorations reflect his skills to survive – he did some pretty dangerous stuff of course. He starts off as a real novice and gets thrown into all sorts of situations. Cheshire started flying during the early days of bombing – from flying across Germany at night and dropping a few hundred tonnes of bombs, to witnessing the ultimate in strategic bombing, the bombing of Nagasaki.
Witnessing the bombing of Nagasaki must have been…well, indescribable. Is that covered in this book?
No, Bomber Pilot describes the first half of the war – it finishes in 1942 and it was published during the war. I think it’s an important book in that it recalls the early days of the war. A lot has been written about the bombing offensive in the last years of the war, but to fully understand the escalation of the air war you need to appreciate the difficulties faced by the bomber crews in the early stages. Cheshire’s book aptly describes these testing times.
What did you like about it?
I like it because he really puts you in the seat of the cockpit – you’re getting it first-hand from someone who flew the aircraft. And he talks about the losses and how they affected him, though eventually he became quite matter-of-fact about it.
How do you think the pilots coped with their fear of death?
That’s a question I’ve often put to them. Some of them couldn’t cope, though most of them did. The standard answer I’m given is that they thought, ‘It’s not going to happen to me,’ or, ‘I’m just doing a job.’ Some put a barrier up. Some of the terminology they used shows this – if someone was killed, they would say: ‘So and so bought it.’ They used language to put up a barrier rather than acknowledging what was physically happening to human beings.
How many Allied airmen fought and died in the Battle of Britain?
Around 2927 airmen fought, and 544 of those lost their lives. These young men are designated as ‘Churchill’s few’, though there is some controversy around who he included as the ‘few’. I think it could be interpreted as the whole of the RAF, but generally it’s considered that the bomber pilots were ‘the many’. A total of 55,500 were killed in bomber aircraft through the entire war. I don’t think they get the credit they deserve.
Fifty stories behind fifty recipients of the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest decoration, from Crimean War to WWII. The author, Lord Ashcroft, has collected them all at his Gallery at London's Imperial War Museum. Oozes jingoism
