Description

John Sherwood was commissioned into the RAF as a pilot officer on leaving school in 1936. In mid-1940, he was posted to a frontline bomber squadron. He went on to undertake a full tour of thirty sorties, earning himself a Distinguished Flying Cross.  Sherwood flew Manchesters on a further series of eventful bombing missions, earning a Bar to the DFC in recognition of his determination and leadership. It was in the new Lancasters that Sherwood, by then a Squadron Leader, undertook his most daring mission. This was Operation Margin, the attack upon the M.A.N. diesel engine works at Augsburg in Bavaria on 17 April 1942. This involved a flight of some 600 miles in broad daylight with no fighter escort, flying at less than 250 feet in order to avoid enemy radar. The raid was led by both Sherwood and Squadron Leader John Nettleton. Sherwood was shot down during the raid and was duly posted as missing. Assumed dead for six weeks, he eventually surfaced as a prisoner of war in German hands at Stalag Luft III. Both squadron leaders involved were recommended for the award of the Victoria Cross. Whilst Nettleton’s citation was approved, and the VC duly invested, Sherwood’s was amended by the Air Ministry to state: ‘To be recommended for DSO, if found to be alive.’ The DSO was gazetted on 30 June 1942. He was finally repatriated to the UK after the fall of the Third Reich in 1945. Written by his son, this book provides a fascinating insight into the development of Bomber Command into the powerful strike force that helped turn the tide of victory in the West.