A biography of an aviation archaeology pioneer who unearthed World War II plane wrecks and the stories they contained. As long ago as 1961, Terry Parsons, then still in his twenties, began his long search for lost aircraft and memories of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. What he discovered over the decades that followed went far beyond the tangled wreckage of military aircraft, both fighters and bombers. For with each of the thousands of RAF and Luftwaffe artifacts he unearthed came life stories of the valiant and the brave, the living and the dead. Among the items he has recovered from the many wreck sites were a mud-cloaked control column from a Spitfire with its gun button still switched to firing mode, a piece of Dornier Do 17 fuselage bearing the fatal bullet holes which led to its crash in southeast England, a pilot’s waistcoat once used to stop the drafts and rattles in a Hurricane cockpit, blood-stained maps from a Luftwaffe bomber, and a buckled tail fin from a Me 110 bearing the unmistakable symbol of the swastika. Now in this biography, created from Terry’s original notes and photographs stretching back almost seventy years, we learn not only about the historical significance of Terry’s story as a wreck-hunter but also the importance of remembering the lives of the men who fought in the skies above Britain in World War II. Indeed, this book shows us how one man’s commitment to aviation archaeology ultimately serves as a tribute to thousands of young souls both lost and found in the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
