Southern RAF heroes who fought Nazi plans

Ireland’s Aviator Heroes of World War II (Vol II) is a collection of 25 biographies of brave RAF personnel from both sides of the border who risked – and often sacrificed – their lives to stop the Nazi war machine.

Author John Hewitt, from Portadown but now living in Islandmagee, worked as a British Airways engineer for 30 years and is internationally known for his World War II research.

He was inspired to start the volumes after a man who had taken part in the legendary Dambusters attack on Ruhr Valley dams in 1943 told him his story.

“The next morning I rang him up and asked if he would let me interview him to preserve the memories,” he said. “What I really wanted to achieve was to make sure that their acts of courage would be preserved for their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

Each aviator he interviewed recommended another until he had collated 150 biographies.

The feedback from volume one was “absolutely fantastic”. He adds: “A common theme was from families of RAF men asking how I managed to get their fathers to talk. Many said they always refused to speak about their experiences. I just put it down to the gift of the gab.”

Volume two contains only 25 biographies but goes into more depth. About half of those featured came from the Republic of Ireland.

“Many of them from the south joined because work was so scarce down there. But at the same time most of them said they were going to fight for their country because they thought Hitler was going to invade the south. He had the plans all drawn up, known as ‘Operation Green’.”

He outlined a number of characters from the latest volume – Dubliner Paddy Finucane was shot down at sea in 1942 off the French coast by a machine gunner. He was the youngest Wing Commander in the RAF at the time at only 22. Neither his body nor his aircraft were ever found.

Belfast man Jim Matthews was shot down over Holland in 1944 and survived the notorious Long March of prisoners of war in January 1945. Many of them died from frostbite and others just fell by the wayside and were shot by Germans where they lay. However, Jim survived his ordeal and still lives in a nursing home in Bangor, Co Down.

Lastly he mentions Willian Nesbitt, uncle of famous Ulster actor Jim, who was flying a Typhoon over Caen in France in 1944 when he was shot down. He was buried in the Bayeux War Cemetery.

l Ireland’s Aviator Heroes of WW II (Vol II) is selling from Waterstones and Easons.

See Morning View, page 14