Читать книгу Sherlock's Squadron - The Incredible True Story of the Unsung Heroes of World War Two - Steve Holmes - Страница 7

It has taken me fifteen years to complete this book in memory of my late father Flight Engineer John Holmes and his comrades who flew with him and those on the ground who supported them. My father was fascinated by aircraft from a young age and I suppose as a chip off the old block I followed suit. It was when I discovered his exact role in World War Two that I concentrated on and fell in love with the aircraft he flew twenty four sorties in. The Stirling. My father never talked too much about the war and 196 Squadron or the brave men he came into contact with. I wish he had because I’ve spent literally thousands of hours on research, read over a hundred books and called upon the personal memories from the daughters and sons and nieces and nephews of those great men who are sadly no longer with us. However, a portion of this book has what we call poetic licence. Let me explain.

I wanted this book to be an accurate account of what happens when young men go to war. I wanted to capture not just the statistics and records of the sorties but the emotion, the camaraderie, the sense of fear and of pride and at times disillusionment. And I wanted so much more than that, I wanted this book to be a complete read, a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. We all know the beginning and we all know the end but how many of us are truly aware of what the middle was like? I wanted the sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters of these men to pick up my book and read it like a novel but I wanted it to be real and I wanted it to be a fitting tribute to the men who fought against an evil regime hell bent on world domination so that we could continue to live as free men and women. I’ll give an example.

My father never mentioned a rear gunner called Curly Mason and I know he didn’t fly with him. But through my extensive research I know Curly Mason was almost certain to have come in contact with my father during their training. Therefore, in Chapter Four of this book I have introduced Curly Mason as a friend of my father. I have brought in other characters too, such as Lofty Matthews. Again my father never mentioned Lofty but I’m pretty sure he bumped into him somewhere along the way and I feel a special bond with him that I can’t explain, but at times I feel I knew Lofty Matthews on a personal level and I wanted to bring him and his tragic tale into this book.

These men are heroes; I had to bring them alive again as a fitting tribute to their courage and fortitude. I make no apologies for doing so. I remember reading somewhere, that to live on in the hearts and minds of the reader is truly not to die. This was my sole purpose in writing this book. We owe them everything, we must never forget them.

In the pages of this book they all live on.

Steve Holmes