In September 1944 a young
Allied fighter pilot force-lands his damaged aircraft deep
into hostile enemy territory. He survives the crash but
minutes later his life is taken.
Ten months on and the European war is
over. Germany’s defeat is total. The Allied forces occupying the
shattered Fatherland have to re-establish some sort of order from
the chaos and ruin. Deemed essential is the bringing to justice
those who had perpetrated war atrocities, to ‘pursue them to the
uttermost ends of the earth’, and, ‘deliver them to their accusers
in order that justice may be done’.
In July 1945 a team of Allied war
crime investigators visit a German cemetery to examine the exhumed
decomposing corpse of an Allied airman. The visible damage to the
body suggests foul play. Identification of the airman proves
problematic and an investigation is begun to piece together the last
moments of the pilot’s life. What was the cause of death? Who was
responsible? Had a war crime been committed and should someone be
held accountable?
Using testimony from those involved
and their families, from officers involved in the investigation and
from official documentation Flightpath to Murder tells the
pilot’s story, beginning in a distant country, through to the
fateful day in 1944. The book tells of the comprehensive
investigation to establish the truth surrounding the murder of the
pilot, and the application of military law. Steve Darlow also
reconstructs the story of the men who would be held accountable for
the killing and have to defend their lives in court. What had turned
them into killers? Why had a man described as, ‘a tender father who
as a good Christian disliked every violent action’ become a killer in
cold blood?
Flightpath to Murder
records the untold story of a journey to barbarism and the terrible
consequences that could befall those individuals who ventured along
that path. It opens up a new important chapter in the telling of the
air war of World War Two, and its effect on individual lives.
