Beaufighter and Mosquito Operations in WWII: The Memoirs of a Radar Operator [Hardcover]

Simply put, this is an unvarnished account of a dedicated young man who fled his country ahead of the Nazi occupation, who would never see his family again, and who unselfishly fought the Germans to protect his adopted homeland.-The Journal of the Air Force Historical FoundationZbyaek Neas was just 18, and still a high school student, when he escaped from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia a month before the outbreak of war in 1939. He managed to make his way to Britain where he had a cousin.Neas enlisted in the RAF in 1940, initially being posted as an interpreter at the Czech Depot. Some of his early duties involved the interrogation of captured German aircrew. He was, however, determined to fly. That wish came not as a pilot, but as a radar operator.In time, Neas was posted to 68 Squadron, which throughout the war had a large number of Czech exiles on its strength  one flight was entirely Czech-manned. In this moving memoir, he details just what it was like to serve as part of an RAF night fighter crew during the second half of the Second World War. From the organization of squadron and operations, to the directing of night fighters in the bomber stream, problems of maintaining contact with the target, the duration of patrols to interception tactics, all, and more, is revealed in this book. Having trained on the Blenheim Mk.IV, Neas operational patrols began on Bristol Beaufighters, the squadron subsequently converting to de Havilland Mosquitoes.There are of course, the graphic accounts of victory in the air. This includes combat with a Heinkel He 177 Grief over North Sea, or the explosion of a Dornier Do 217 after another successful interception. As well as nighttime intruder operations over Europe, from the summer of 1944, 68 Squadron, Neas included, found itself drawn into the battle against Hitlers V-weapons, particularly the V1. Neas crew ended the war with three confirmed kills, one probable, and two damaged.After the war, Neas returned to his hol£H