Monday, September 2, 2013

Flypast Magazine 10/2013

Max Gaskins war began as an engine fitter on a windswept airfield in Yorkshire. It ended with him as a master bomber's flight engineer in an elite Pathfinder squadron. In between he got to do what few in Bomber Command did -dropping agents and supplies to Resistance forces in France, Norway, the Low Countries and Denmark, flying with 161 Squadron from the RAF s most secret airfield, Tempsford in Bedfordshire. It was a career that earned him a DFC and Bar after 63 'ops', during which he served alongside legends of both the bomber war and the famous 'Tempsford Taxi' service. Max was on a cycling holiday in Devon when war was declared, listening to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlains speech over a car radio at the roadside on a sunny morning near Barnstable. He was still short of his 18th birthday but immediately turned north and three days later arrived back at the family home in Liverpool, determined to do his bit by joining the RAF.

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