Hell on Earth: Dramatic First-Hand Experiences of Bomber Command at War

By Mel Rolfe

Book Overview

On a dark desperate night in June 1943 a stricken Halifax bomber limped low over Holland and crashed in a small meadow of cows. The aircraft was wrecked, but its crew, amazingly, stepped out alive and completely unhurt - just one of the twenty new and true stories of bravery, survival and luck, good and bad, contained in this book.

'A good, tense reporting job...the author allows these veterans to tell the key elements of their stories mainly in their own words yet still brings out the excitement and terror of their recollections.' - Journal of Aircrew Assocation

'A very good read going a long way to helping understand what those chaps went through to achieve victory.' - Bomber Command Historical Society Journal

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1902304950
• ISBN13: 9781902304953
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Tales of Bomber Command Crews at War!

No author has done more to preserve the memories of WWII RAF bomber aircrews than Mel Rolfe. In his series of books such as LOOKING INTO HELL, BOMBER BOYS and FLYING INTO HELL, Rolfe has brought those long-ago warriors to life. HELL ON EARTH, published by Grub Street in 1999, offers up more tales of the RAF in action. As with other Rolfe titles, this one comes highly recommended. HELL ON EARTH details the experiences of 20 Lancaster, Halifax, Mosquito and Liberator aircrews from various squadrons. The stories related are varied, dramatic and poignant. One deals with a 624 Squadron crew downed while flying a resupply mission to Warsaw Uprising forces. Another relates the desperate measures taken by crewmen on a failing 405 Squadron Lancaster to get their horribly burned comrade immediate medical treatment. A third introduces the reader to a legendary 101 Lancaster pilot with the improbable name of William Alexander Scrymgeour-Wedderburn, a feareless warrior known for "his magnificent indifference to all forms of enemy opposition" and to RAF discipline! Yet another relates how a 626 Squadron crew struggled home in a Lancaster crippled by bombs dropped by another Lancaster! Rolfe is a gifted writer. In a few short pages he makes every crew come to life as human beings and movingly relates their wartime experiences. There is no glory in the stories Rolfe relates. Many are heartbreaking with these wonderful men crews being shot down by flak or unseen nightfighters that suddenly appear out of the blackness, their cannons and machine guns savaging the lumbering bombers and their crews. If you want to understand the war fought by RAF Bomber Command crews, pick up a copy of HELL ON EARTH. It will immerse you in the world of those fine, young men who laid waste to Germany's cities but at a horrible cost. Highly recommended.