Tucked away in the archives of the Museum for Transport and Technology in Berlin is an old photograph of a Hawker Hurricane on public display. The image must have been taken before the night of 23/24 November 1943, when the museum and the greater part of its collection – including the Hurricane – were destroyed in a RAF bombing raid. The aircraft in the photograph bore a squadron commander’s pennant under the cockpit, had broken propellor blades and carried the squadron markings PA-A on its fuselage, as well as the serial number W9147. Intrigued by what he had seen, the picture launched the author on an investigation that uncovered an incredible story of wartime treachery and betrayal. That tale concerns one man in particular – Augustin Přeučil. Also known to his family and friends as Gustav Přeučil, it was Augustin who had been the Hurricane’s last RAF pilot. A 26-year-old aviator from Czechoslovakia, on first appearances Přeučil had fled his homeland after Nazi Germany took control and created the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – part of Hitler’s Greater Germany. Having initially traveled to Poland, he then escaped to France and, from there, ultimately reached Britain, where he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve. Augustin Přeučil seemed to be just like many of the men who had arrived in the UK to continue the fight against Hitler. He appeared to be settled and even married an English girl in July 1941. But on 18 September of that year, he was posted missing, believed killed, while undertaking a training flight off the coast of Sunderland and Hartlepool. Přeučil’s body was never recovered and nothing more was heard of him. His young wife received a war widow’s pension; he was just another sad statistic of the war. However, Augustin Přeučil was far from dead. Having landed the ‘stolen’ Hurricane near Bastogne in Belgium, he was treated by local people as a downed Allied pilot, sheltered and then passed into the care of the local Resistance group. Přeučil repaid their trust by handing himself into the Gestapo – and revealing all he knew. The Gestapo’s response was swift and brutal. For Přeučil, this marked the start of a new career as an undercover agent for the Gestapo, principally in Czechoslovakia. As the author reveals, how he ended up serving Hitler’s Third Reich and betraying his homeland, his adopted country and a new wife, is a story that while strange is completely true. It is also one that ended with his death. Found guilty of High Treason, Přeučil was hanged by the Czech authorities in April 1947.

To the fifteen passengers and crew onboard the lumbering Short Sunderland flying boat, everything appeared normal and routine as it lifted off from the seaplane base at RAF Invergordon on Sunday, 25 August 1942. Its destination was Iceland, where one of the passengers, Air Commodore HRH Prince George, The Duke of Kent, supported by his entourage, was to undertake an inspection of various RAF bases in Iceland in his role as a senior RAF Welfare Officer. It was about thirty minutes later that disaster struck. At 13.42 hours, the Sunderland ploughed into a hillside on the remote headland known as Eagle's Rock, near Dunbeath in Caithness. Apart from the rear gunner, everyone on board, including Prince George, was instantly killed. There was a Court of Inquiry, which opened on 28 August and completed on 1 September. This resulted in a disagreement between two senior officers in relation to its conclusion. The funeral of the Duke surprisingly, took place on the 29th during the Court of Inquiry. There was also a rapid and thorough wreckage clearance of the scene by 16 September and the apparent disjointed recording of the various men’s deaths with the registrar. Pilot error was the official cause for the crash, allegedly ‘signed off’ by the Chief Inspector of Accidents, but hard evidence has been difficult to find since 1942. In fact, the Court of Inquiry report could not be sourced in the UK and had to be obtained from the Australian archives. Witness statements and any possible technical assessments have also disappeared and are not even contained in the Australian file. So where are they, and why have the documents for the second worst fatal air crash up to that period of time gone missing? In addition, where is the Duke of Kent’s diary and personal papers for this period? Where any plans drawn of the site and the position of the casualties? Where post mortems carried out and by whom? Over the years a variety of researchers, historians and authors have sought to identify whether the cause of the crash was pilot error or something else. Others have sought to explain it with a number of possible conspiracy theories including murder, a Nazi plot, a plot linked to Rudolf Hess and a peace initiative. The author, a former police senior investigating officer who was a member of the first Murder Review in London in the late 1990s, has sought to gather all the available evidence from a wide variety of resources. He looks at the history of the main characters and any possible reasons or motives they may have been targeted or involved in a plot. He seeks to find further evidence, even allowing after more than 80 years for hearsay evidence in his review. He also examines the investigation and what it perhaps should have done in 1942. While other books, newspapers and magazine articles have sought to establish the cause and or a conspiracy behind the fatal crash, this author covers all bases and asks what evidence is missing and why?

War is cruel and bloody, achieving the most important objective. When ordered to neutralize the Nazi Red Dragon Tails mysterious chemical weapon, Bobby Ray, Peggy Jean Madison, Thomas Clinton, and Richard Davenport quickly recognized Red Dragon Tails terrifying evils. The year is 1941. Hitler is devastating Europe, while Imperial Japan is conquering Asia. A weapon is needed to halt the bloody flow. However, such a destructive system does exist. But there are troubles. Red Dragon Tail hasnt been used for two thousand years. The chemical formulation will have to be rediscovered, and Nazi Germany is actively experimenting with it. If Western civilization is to survive, it falls upon the Allied agents to not only properly blend the powders but also stop the Nazis from using it. At times, both options seemed impossible.

“The story of one of the most heroic fighter aces of the Second World War . . . has been brought to life in this gripping new book.” —Lancashire Living Magazine Air Commodore Peter Malam “Pete” Brothers CBE, DSO, DFC, and Bar (1917-2008) was one of the most highly praised pilots of the Second World War. Decorated extensively, he secured a total of 16 “kills” over the course of the conflict, with 10 of these occurring during the Battle of Britain. Pivotal moments in his career include the time, in August 1940, when his flight encountered around a hundred enemy aircraft, including Messerschmitt 110s; he led the flight in attack against them, and soon found himself in a stalled position, out of which he spun, only to be confronted by a Dornier 215, which he shot down, before later destroying a Messerschmitt 109. Scores of these kind of risky maneuvers and winning victories punctuated a career defined by great courage, leadership and initiative in the face of fierce opposition. This new and engaging biography profiles a pilot who, until now, hasn’t been the subject of such a thorough book-length study. The story of his career is incredibly entertaining, featuring a number of hair-raising episodes, and is sure to appeal to fans of aviation history as well as the more general reader seeking out an action-packed biography offering fresh insights into one of the most pivotal conflicts of the twentieth century. “An engaging story of one of The Few . . . This is a book that entertains, inspires, moves, amuses, surprises—what more could any reader ask for.” —FIRE Project

For many years the importance and contribution of the Hawker Hurricane was eclipsed by the Spitfire but statistically the Hurricane was superior in the majority of cases. Thanks to Tommy Sopwiths initiative and gamble the Hurricane was ready at the outbreak of the Second World War and in service throughout.As this superbly researched book reveals by examining the roles, actions and personalities of ten Hurricane squadrons, this iconic aircraft was not only exceptionally robust but astonishingly versatile. We track its performance from the Battle of France and Britain through the Middle East, Italy and on to Burma. It excelled as day and night interceptor, intruder and importantly as a rocket firing tank buster.The Hurricane inspired great loyalty among its pilots and their colourful personalities and thrilling experiences make this splendid book an informative and entertaining read.

A detailed memoir of the life and career of a WWII veteran and POW. George Sweanor was sent, along with fellow Allied Air Forces prisoners of war, to what he considers his Alma Mater, Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Silesia, Germany, after his Halifax bomber was shot down on the return leg from Berlin in March of 1943. The prisoner-of-war camp, famous for The Great Escape, was run by the German Luftwaffe (air force), and through their mutual respect for their profession the captors and their prisoners generally got along well. This afforded George the opportunity to carefully record the events of his imprisonment, and instilled in him the duty and desire to capture his 25 years of military service in this book. This memoir is an account of 25 years spent in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as an observer (navigator, bomb aimer, gunner) during World War II, his marrying in England, his capture and imprisonment, assisting The Great Escape, returning to Canada after the war, supporting a military family of five girls, and serving in various exciting assignments that included years of pioneering work in the Arctic, the Korean Airlift, training NATO cadets (having as a pilot trainee in 1957 the high-school Luftwaffe flak gunner responsible for shooting him down in 1943), and terminating in November 1966 in the Combat Operations Center at NORAD, Colorado Springs, during the Vietnam War era. Additionally, this book includes rich statistics from World War II operations, diagrams, maps, pictures, cartoons, and a bit of humorous wit to temper the sorrows of war.

There have been many remarkable women who served British Intelligence during the Second World War. One whose dubious claim to have worked for them is a fascinating tale involving three marriages – the first, to a spurious White Russian prince; the second to a playboy-turned-criminal involved in a major jewellery robbery in the heart of London’s Mayfair in the late 1930s. After the war she became romantically involved with a well-known British Fascist, but finally married another notorious criminal whom she had met earlier during the war. The descriptions variously ascribed to her ranged from ‘remarkable’ and ‘quite ravishing’ to ‘...a woman whose loose living would make her an object of shame on any farm-yard’. Until now, very little has been recorded about Stella Lonsdale’s life. She doesn’t even merit a mention in the two official histories of MI5, even though she managed to tie them up in knots for years. This book will explore the role this strange woman may or may not have played in working for British Intelligence, the French Deuxième Bureau, or the Abwehr – German military intelligence – during the Second World War, using her MI5 files as a primary source.