The Gallant Airmen of Brookwood Military Cemetery

With an average age of twenty-six, 'The Gallant Airmen of Brookwood Military Cemetery' honors fifty-two airmen from seven nations who displayed the highest levels of bravery and gallantry while flying. Awarded the Royal Air Force's highest-flying decorations. They now rest in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey, the largest Commonwealth Military Cemetery in the United Kingdom.

 

Exploring their stories, the book first provides a brief history of the construction and maintenance of the Commonwealth Military Cemeteries and Memorials of the wars of 1914 - 1918 and 1939 - 1945. It explains the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's heritage principles, the eligibility criteria for interment within a War Cemetery, and the history of Brookwood Military Cemetery, its monuments, and memorials.

 

Having considered the Wider origins of military gallantry awards, the author examines the circumstances that led Britain's military to introduce a standardised system of awards for its service personnel, culminating in creating the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Flying Medal, the Air Force Cross, and the Air Force Medal for aircrew.

 

The author then explains how, during World War Il, Britain trained its aircrews to defend the realm against the axis powers of evil through implementing the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

 

In providing the personal accounts of the fifty-two decorated airmen buried at Brookwood, the author describes the circumstances and training they undertook to become airmen, the commands, and squadrons they served with, the operations they flew, and the battles they fought. Throughout its pages, this book reveals the amazing, and often unbelievable accounts of how they achieved their awards, and the often-inexplicable circumstances in which they lost their lives.

 

This book tells the incredible stories of ordinary men from around the world. Men whose training, instinct, and intuition led them to become heroes of the air. Men who performed extraordinary acts of gallantry, who withstood danger, experienced adversity, suffered misfortune and ultimately came to be buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery.

 

'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:



Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.



At the going down of the sun and in the morning



We will remember them.'



Robert Laurence Binyon