Glorious in Solitude The Courage of Isolated Rear Gunners in the RAF

[colinpateman]

I have sought to create a book for the Rear Gunners, the lives of 15 men are explored in detail explaining the unique challenges of being encased behind persex. Some were awarded Gallantry medals whilst others received nothing other than surviving with their lives. Their logbooks bring each story to life and the Bomber Command Memorial sculpture has a special relevance to the cover. See www.colinpateman.com for more information.

[CZ_RAF]

Congratulations Colin!
Have you there also any Czech?

Pavel

[colinpateman]

Pavel. Amongst the 15 Rear Gunners service I researched is the story of Vaclav Spitz, a gallant Czech. Altogether the book details some 416 operational sorties and explores the combined rear Gunners time in their turrets which I estmated to be around 2,750 hours.

[dfuller52]

Hi Colin,

Belated congratulations... I haven't been poking around the forum as much as I used to and hadn't noticed this section before. My father was a tail gunner but only made it as far as the HCU - twice! His crew were a bit of a carry-on gang and were held back the first time due to a crew mishap on returning from town one night. He once told me about having his foot burnt a bit from a short in his electrical suit. Other than that, I think the worst thing he did in the was drop window on the Frisian Islands. The war ended before they went to an operational squadron.