About The Book
Under a Bomber’s Moon is the true story of a New Zealand navigator-bomb aimer with the Royal Air Force and a German night fighter pilot as they fight for success and survival over night time Germany during the bitterest years of the Second World War. In early 1944, after completing one tour of operations and winning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his exploits, the New Zealander, Colwyn Jones, was killed during a raid on Berlin.
About The Night War Over Europe
During the Second World War the night sky over Europe was one of the most lethal places to wage war. By 1945 almost half of the airmen who flew with Bomber Command and a third of the Luftwaffe night fighter crew pitted against them had been killed. Many German cities became moonscapes of rubble, their inhabitants the first to experience the reality of ‘total war’ – itself a glimpse of the destructive potential of the nuclear age about to explode in the Far East. Book Excerpts
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Stephen Harris
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Sunday, 10 July 2011 18:27
UK Edition Features New Cover, Updated Content
The United Kingdom edition of Under a Bomber's Moon, published in July 2011, features a new cover and several dramatic updates on the 2009 editions.
The Pen and Sword edition will be the first time some of the extraordinary responses from people connected to the events in the first and second editions have appeared in print, plus there are updates on what became of some of them.
Many developments in response to the first and second editions remain exclusive to this website, including the terrifying story of escaping a stricken Lancaster by its sole survivor and the exclusive, the soul-searching admonition by Otto Fries's daughter of the legacy her generation of Germans had to confront and the first-hand account by Luftwaffe ace Paul Zorner of shooting down the uncle of a New Zealand acquaintance of the author.
The UK edition can be ordered via the Pen and Sword website at: http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Under-A-Bombers-Moon/p/3146/
Wednesday, 02 February 2011 12:17
Third Account of North Sea Ditching Comes to Light 70 Years Later
A third account of Col Jones' June 1942 ditching in the North Sea has now come to light, nearly 70 years later. Through reading Under a Bomber's Moon, the families of the skipper and front gunner of their doomed Stirling made contact with the author.
Roger Whitney and Faith Cox, son and daughter of skipper Eric Whitney DFC, knew of the incident but had heard only a poor quality recording of their father's BBC account of the episode (audio is under 'Ditching Excerpt' on website home page). Whitney remained with the RAF after the war, serving in Burma, then completed his prewar training and became a vet. He died in 2001.
Hugh Martin contacted me after learning of Under a Bomber's Moon. His father Les 'Paddy' Martin served as front gunner in the Stirling the night it ditched. His brief account of the dramatic episode can be read in the website bonus material for the chapter 'Ditching'.
Col was a good friend, and was Best Man at his wedding in September 1942.
Martin completed 35 ops with 149 Squadron before transferring to 51 Squadron. His Halifax MH-B was shot down over Berlin on 22 November 1942 and crashed at Grunewald, near where I lived from 2004-2008. Martin describes his experience in detail in the website chapter 'On a Wing and a Prayer'.
Martin was blown clear of the aircraft and fell from 22,000 feet, somehow deploying his parachute despite being knocked cold. He came two after hitting trees and cutting his leg badly. He eluded capture until the next day, then was taken POW by a partol and sent to Stalag Luft I at Barth, near the Baltic city of Stralsund. He was one of only two survivors from the Halifax.
Martin remained with the RAF until 1968. He died in 2005, aged 90.
Wednesday, 02 February 2011 12:14
Discovery of Jones' letter to Dead VC Hero's Mother
When an Australian friend and 149 Squadron comrade, ‘Ron’ Middleton, was killed on 28 November 1942 after an heroic feat of airmanship that won him a posthumous Victoria Cross, Col Jones wrote to Middleton’s mother on behalf of other friends on the squadron. Jones’ reference to this letter is on page 137 of Under a Bomber’s Moon. I tried to trace the original of this letter through the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, but with no success. Then I bought a second-hand copy of an anthology of “incredible stories of the World War II airmen in their own words” – Voices in the Air, edited by Laddie Lucas. Luck can sometimes better careful research, as when I chanced upon a CD with a BBC recording in which Jones’ skipper recounts the ditching episode in chapter 2 of my book. And so it proved again. Lucas’ anthology contains an excerpt from the letter, after recapping Middleton’s self-sacrificing act of shepherding his mauled Stirling back from Turin to England to enable his crew to bale out, despite having lost an eye and sustaining serious wounds to his body from flak. Middleton then flew out to sea to avoid the risk of crashing into housing. The excerpt of Jones’ letter to Middleton’s mother can be found in the bonus material for the chapter 'Coping with Loss' in this website.
Monday, 15 March 2010 21:19
British ex- POW recalls being attacked by RAF fighters
A crew member of the first Lancaster shot down by Otto Fries died just weeks before the end of the war when his POW column was strafed by RAF Typhoons. A Christchurch man, Maurice Askew, was in that same POW column. He spoke to Stephen Harris about his experiences.
Maurice Askew’s first op was Col Jones’s last - to Berlin, on February 15-16 1944. After the war Askew described this raid as “a gigantic, roaring fireworks display.
“The noise was intense. Bombs were exploding below and fires ravaged the city as Phil [Paddock], our bomb aimer, took over to guide Wally [Jarvis, the skipper] over the target. Pathfinder planes with experienced crew aboard were now being sent in a short time before the main force to light up the centres of the target areas with flares. There was no hanging around. Phil released out bombs. “Bombs gone, let’s get to hell out of here.”
Monday, 15 March 2010 08:53
Book leads NZ airman to the man who killed his relative
Stephen Harris briefly thought Luftwaffe Nachtjagd ace Paul Zorner had killed his great-uncle, Col Jones. Further research ruled that out, but at the Wellington launch of Under a Bomber’s Moon, a guest came forward with questions about the death of his second cousin in that same Leipzig raid in which Maurice Askew was shot down, on 19-20 February 1944. This time the trail through time led straight to Zorner.
Wellingtonian David Saunders, a former RAF and RNZAF squadron leader, grew up knowing his father’s cousin had died bombing Germany. Skipper Squadron Leader Anthony Saunders (25) was on his 49th op when a Messerschmitt ME110 piloted by Oberleutnant Zorner picked up his 156 Squadron Lancaster north of Hanover.