The raid on the secret rocket research establishment at Peenemünde on
the Baltic coast in August 1943 has gone down in history as one of the
most successful and remarkable of the war. The site was virtually
obliterated, and the Germans forced to move rocket production and
development elsewhere. But it came at a terrible cost. More than 40
bombers and 215 RAF aircrew failed to return. After the war, the bodies
of many of those who were killed were recovered by the Missing Research
and Enquiry Service (MRES) and buried in Commonwealth war graves. But
not all. A series of mishaps and miscommunication led the MRES to search
in the wrong place. Funds to continue the search dried up. And with the
site falling into Russian hands, and access to British and US search
parties severely restricted, the search ultimately had to be called off,
and the remaining men commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial as having
no known grave. But some of the missing men are still there, waiting to
be found.
With a foreword from Peenemünde raid veteran pilot George Dunn DFC L
d'H, and illustrated with a wealth of previously unpublished
photographs, Sean Feast and Mike McLeod tell the story of the forgotten
graves of Peenemünde, the search to discover the truth about their final
resting place, and the chance that their bodies may yet be discovered
and returned.
