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NEW! Beaufighter Strike published by Pen & Sword. Available on Amazon and all good booksellers.

BEAUFIGHTER STRIKE

by ww2stories‘ own Ross J. Robertson & Kostandinos Giannakos


Nearly 80 years after WWII, Bill Hayter’s children discovered his long forgotten journal in an attic in France. Inside was the extraordinary story of a young RAF pilot shot down over Nazi occupied Naxos during the disastrous Dodecanese Campaign, and the remarkable chain of events that saved his life.

On 30 October 1943, his Beaufighter was hit during a daring attack on Axis shipping in Naxos harbour. Dragged underwater with the sinking aircraft, badly concussed and barely conscious, Hayter somehow escaped. With his navigator, Tom Harper, he reached shore, where Greek Resistance fighter George Sideris risked his life to shelter them. Their eventual rescue by a Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) patrol was nothing short of miraculous.

Fully reproduced and contextualised for the first time, Hayter’s journal offers a gripping first hand account of survival, courage and sacrifice, and the extraordinary friendships forged in the darkest days of WWII.

See the video on our brand new YouTube channel WW2 Stories Media by clicking Beaufighter Strike: A Story Lost for 80 Years (opens a new tab) or below.

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Greek Antiquities in WWII.

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Ju-88 in the Aegean.

The Battle of Crete.

Distomo Massacre.

Hitler & Munich.

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Operation Olive Oil Pt 1.

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Secret Communist Agenda?.

WWII in the Air.

Ju 88 Found.

Inside Beau Strike.

Op. Isinglass.

Hayter’s Lost Journals.

Submarine’s War Against the Axis is the extraordinary true story of HMS Triumph and her secret war in the Mediterranean between 1941 and 1942.

Far more than a tale of submarine attacks, it follows covert missions with SOE, MI6, MI9, the SBS and the newly formed Commandos across Greece, Crete, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Yugoslavia.

Written with the pace of a thriller, Gav Don (whose two part article HMS Triumph’s Last Day is right here on ww2stories.org) brings to life daring escapes, clandestine operations and the human stories behind the Mediterranean campaign – including Lt. John Atkinson and Jim Craig, captured during the fall of Greece before returning to occupied Athens as secret agents.

Triumph’s remarkable wartime career ended tragically in January 1942 when she vanished with all hands on one final mission before a promised return home. The discovery of her wreck by legendary diver Kostas Thoctarides in 2023 has finally allowed her last patrol – and her fate – to be reconstructed in unprecedented detail. Definitely worth reading!

One Submarine’s War Against the Axis is available from the Pen & Sword website, Amazon, and all good booksellers.