Lancaster pilot Victor Wood's aircraft arrived too early over Gelsenkirchen when the target was shrouded in darkness and the Main Force miles behind. His bomber was suddenly struck with terrifying force by flak and turned upside- down. Could Vic get his crew back to base safely? This book contains 19 similar stories.
Set against the backdrop of World War II, the narrative recounts the harrowing tale of a Halifax bomber that crashes in Holland during a dark night in June 1943. Remarkably, the crew emerges unscathed from the wreckage, highlighting themes of bravery and survival. This story is part of a collection featuring twenty true accounts that explore the duality of luck—both good and bad—experienced by individuals in desperate situations. Each tale showcases human resilience in the face of adversity.
Twenty true stories relating the experiences of bomber aircraft veterans during World War II. All stories incorporate first-hand anecdotes, and include experiences such as: a crash-landed crew adrift in the North Sea for nine days; and a crew seeing a bomb make a hole in their aircraft's wing.
One day George Arthur Rose, hack writer and minor priest, discovers that he has been picked to be Pope. He is hardly surprised and not in the least daunted. "The previous English pontiff was Hadrian the Fourth," he declares. "The present English pontiff is Hadrian the Seventh. It pleases Us; and so, by Our own impulse, We command."Hadrian is conceived in the image of his creator, Fr. Rolfe, whose aristocratic pretensions (he called himself Baron Corvo), religious obsession, and anarchic and self-aggrandizing sensibility have made him known as one of the great English eccentrics. Fr. Rolfe endured a lifetime of indignities and disappointments. However, in the hilarious and touching pages of this, his finest novel, he triumphs.