A Raid Over Berlin: A Miraculous True-Life Second World War Survival Story
John Martin
Jan 2019 · Little, Brown Book Group · Narrated by Colin Baker
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4 hr 13 min
Unabridged
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"I could see that still no one had been able to get out from the cockpit. It must have been at this moment that I thought I was going to die because I became remarkably calm."
Trapped inside a burning Lancaster bomber, 20,000 feet above Berlin, airman John Martin consigned himself to his fate and turned his thoughts to his fiancee back home. In a miraculous turn of events, however, the twenty-one year old was thrown clear of his disintegrating airplane and found himself parachuting into the heart of Nazi Germany. He was soon to be captured and began his period as a prisoner of war. This engaging and compulsively readable true-life account of a Second World War airman, who cheated death in the sky, only to face interrogation and the prospect of being shot by the Gestapo, before having to endure months of hardship as a prisoner of war.
Trapped inside a burning Lancaster bomber, 20,000 feet above Berlin, airman John Martin consigned himself to his fate and turned his thoughts to his fiancee back home. In a miraculous turn of events, however, the twenty-one year old was thrown clear of his disintegrating airplane and found himself parachuting into the heart of Nazi Germany. He was soon to be captured and began his period as a prisoner of war. This engaging and compulsively readable true-life account of a Second World War airman, who cheated death in the sky, only to face interrogation and the prospect of being shot by the Gestapo, before having to endure months of hardship as a prisoner of war.
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About the author
John Martin was an RAF member who was thrown clear of his disintegrating aeroplane and found himself parachuting into the heart of Nazi Germany. He was soon to be captured and began his period as a prisoner of war. London-born John Martin volunteered for the RAF as a trainee wireless operator in 1941, aged nineteen. On completing his training, he was posted to RAF Kermington, in Lincolnshire. Here he crewed Lancaster bombers until, on the night of January 30th, 1944, on only his third operational mission, his plane was brought down over Germany. After a miraculous escape, his parachute opening in the chaos of a disintegrating aeroplane, he was captured and interrogated before being held as a prisoner of war. He was held in three camps during this period.
After the Allies finally crushed the Nazi regime in the spring of 1945, bringing the war in Europe to an end, John Martin was liberated by British troops and repatriated back to life in Britain. He returned home to his family and was met by his fiancée, Adelaide, who he married shortly after. The couple went on to raise a family. John Martin, now aged ninety-six, and his wife Adelaide, aged ninety-four live at Tanygroes, near Cardigan in west Wales.
After the Allies finally crushed the Nazi regime in the spring of 1945, bringing the war in Europe to an end, John Martin was liberated by British troops and repatriated back to life in Britain. He returned home to his family and was met by his fiancée, Adelaide, who he married shortly after. The couple went on to raise a family. John Martin, now aged ninety-six, and his wife Adelaide, aged ninety-four live at Tanygroes, near Cardigan in west Wales.
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