The search to find the truth about the Bomber Command airmen missing from the famous Peenemunde raid in August 1943. The raid on the secret rocket research establishment at Peenemunde on the Baltic coast in August 1943 has gone down in history as one of the most successful and remarkable of the war. The site was virtually obliterated, and the Germans forced to move rocket production and development elsewhere. But it came at a terrible cost. More than 40 bombers and 215 RAF aircrew failed to return. After the war, the bodies of many of those who were killed were recovered by the Missing Research and Enquiry Service (MRES) and buried in Commonwealth war graves. But not all. A series of mishaps and miscommunication led the MRES to search in the wrong place. Funds to continue the search dried up. And with the site falling into Russian hands, and access to British and US search parties severely restricted, the search ultimately had to be called off, and the remaining men commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial as having no known grave. But some of the missing men are still there, waiting to be found. With a foreword from Peenemunde raid veteran pilot George Dunn DFC L d'H, and illustrated with a wealth of previously unpublished photographs, Sean Feast and Mike McLeod tell the story of the forgotten graves of Peenemunde, the search to discover the truth about their final resting place, and the chance that their bodies may yet be discovered and returned. AUTHORS: Sean Feast works in PR and advertising and is an acclaimed Bomber Command historian and author, including numerous volumes of Fighting High’s ‘Failed to Return’ series, ‘Thunder Bird in Bomber Command’, and ‘Missing Presumed Murdered’. Following a chance remark by Mike McLeod’s wife regarding her uncle Derrick, who was killed on the Peenemunde raid, Mike began to research the circumstances of the loss, realising there was an important story to be told. He continues to research the cases of other lost airmen.
60 b/w photographs
