Description

During the Second World War Scotland was a key location for many of the Allies’ defensive and offensive activities. It was also important for the training of aircrew and maintaining open air and sea lines of communication with Allied nations. Scotland’s ports, factories and cities were major targets for the Luftwaffe, while adjacent seas had to be traversed by German capital ships and U-boats seeking to interdict Allied trade convoys and warships.
These activities came with a heavy cost by way of lives lost and British, German and American aircraft destroyed in crashes which occurred not just on airfields but on low and high ground in Scotland and the rest of the British Isles, in the seas around Scotland and in Scandinavia.
This book is in two volumes. A summary is given on airfields in Scotland and the principal activities which arose from them. The author considers the main causes of wartime crashes and provides details of clothing and survival equipment and how the authorities responded after a crash had occurred by way of rescue services, casualty handling and accident investigation. A short statistical section breaks down the numbers involved. There are also brief notes on the types of aircraft involved. The fully-referenced book has over 650 pages in all and contains some 60 photographs and three maps.
The main part of the work is a day-by-day compilation describing some 4,500 crashes in which aircraft were destroyed and 6,500 fatalities. It includes details of the crew, type, identity and unit of the aircraft, the circumstances of the loss and a description of the crash location. Crew burial and commemoration details are also provided.