WAR PILOT'S BOOK: Amazing story of bomber hero
SHOT down by German bombers and held as a Prisoner of War, an American pilot based near Peterborough lived to tell the tale.
In a thrilling but sometimes shocking memoir of his time as a pilot, Major J Francis Angier has recalled his life as an American based at Glatton during the Second World War in a book - Ready Or Not Into The Wild Blue.
Major Angier was raised on a Vermont farm and became a B-17 pilot during the Second World War.
He first moved to Glatton, which is now known as Conington Airport, near Peterborough, in the summer of 1944.
On regular bombing missions he wrote about how he saw planes around him getting shot down.
He wrote: "Added to the terror and despair of these fallen crewman was the knowledge that hundreds more bombs would be falling into their apparent landing area."
On a mission as a B-17 pilot he was shot down in Germany.
He wrote: "I lost consciousness from the concussion but had the sensation of being ejected out the right side of the cockpit and remember feeling the intense cold
"My shoulders struck my knees, dislocating both shoulders. My face hit the ground, causing a severe and permanent neck injury, while the jolt of the impact did considerable damage to all my joints and caused some internal injuries."
He was then taken to a Prisoner of War camp in Wetzler, Germany. He spent seven months living in unbearable conditions, battling a daily war against hunger and frostbite.
He was eventually freed in June of 1945, and has since married and had five children.
He is still alive today.
His story has now been published in the UK.
Martyn Chorlton, whose company Old Forge Publishing, based in Cowbit, near Peterborough, distributes the book, said: "When I was approached to publish the book, I couldn't turn it down, as it is such an unforgettable tale."
> The book can be purchased at Peterborough Museum, in Priestgate, Peterborough, or can be ordered by calling Old Forge Publishing on 01406 381313. It retails at £12.95.
© 2005 Johnston Press New Media