Flying Through Fire

Ref: 4288

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{detailed description}FIDO was one of Britain's most remarkable wartime inventions and, despite the somewhat unusual acronym, it was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Allied aircrew during World War Two. In the early years of the war, RAF bomber crews, who had frequently endured the opposition of German nightfighters and flak, returned home only to discover their airfields completely fog-bound. Desperately short of fuel and often disabled by severe battle damage, the many crashlandings that resulted took a savage toll in valuable aircraft and crews.
Prompted by Winston Churchill, the challenge to overcome this deadly hazard was taken up by the government's Petroleum Warfare Department and the result was the development of FIDO — Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation. Lines of burners fuelled by thousands of gallons of petrol were installed beside the runways to literally burn the fog off airfields, thereby allowing aircraft to take-off and land in relative safety.
Drawing upon much unpublished British and American primary sources, and using the recollections and records of participating engineers and scientists, Flying Through Fire portrays the early hair-raising attempts to produce fog-free airfields. The eventual result was a countrywide FIDO system at fifteen British airfields, covering most RAF and USAAF frontline Commands. By the time of the Ardennes Offensive in the winter of 1944, FIDO enabled over one thousand Allied aircraft and crews to make safe landings despite dense fog over Britain and the Continent. The vivid reminiscences of several hundred Allied airmen, who owe their lives to its existence, and the groundcrew who operated it add their own special testimonials to the efficacy of this `Heath-Robinson' device.
Supported by one hundred unique aerial and action photographs, airfield plans and detailed technical drawings, Flying Through Fire is the first and only detailed account of one of the outstanding British inventions of World War Two.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Geoffrey Williams
Published by Alan Sutton 1995 1st edn. 228pp profusely illustrated. 18x26
{condition}very good, in good d/j.
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