RAF Liberators Over Burma: Flying with 159 Squadron - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

As an RAF wireless operator/air gunner, the late Bill 'Enoch' Kirkness DFM of Horsforth, West Yorkshire, flew seventy-two operations from India on two tours: the first in a B-24 Liberator bombing role and the second primarily on air-sea rescue assignments aboard Catalinas and Liberators. Post-war, he owned a signwriting business and a hobby shop, Models and Militaria, and he was a ham radio enthusiast.

Author Matt Poole, a retired U.S. Government geospatial analyst residing in Silver Spring, Maryland (in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in America), has researched Second World War RAF Liberator operations in the Far East (flying out of India, Ceylon, and Burma) since 1990. At that time he began investigating the 29 February 1944 combat disappearance of his Liverpool, UK, born-and-raised mother's first husband, George Plank, a wireless operator/air gunner on RAF 159 Squadron flying out of Digri, India (approximately 64 miles west of Calcutta - now called Kolkata). This intense research led Matt to gain expertise in the activities of numerous RAF (and, secondarily, American) flying units and to assist families of Liberator veterans in learning of the exploits and sometimes losses of their loved ones. He has located many veterans and also kin of the fallen, including siblings, cousins, children, and widows. He has also found girlfriends and fiancées. His desire has always been to share his considerable findings with those who never knew loss details (only if they wished to know). For his first book (entitled RAF LIBERATORS OVER BURMA, subtitled FLYING WITH 159 SQUADRON) he edited the memoir of RAF wireless operator/air gunner Bill Kirkness DFM, and he provided expanded details to enhance Bill's words. He has also written two articles about George Plank and Liberator losses over Burma in the RAF Association's Air Mail magazine (PARTS 1 and 2 of a story entitled DARING DIANA, which was the name of George's Liberator bomber) and has given popular Internet podcast interviews (on WW2podcast.com and via the RAF Association).