Tail Gunner : Squadron Leader

First published in 1943, Tail Gunner is the absorbing story of one man's involvement in RAF Bomber Command's fledgling offensive between August 1940 and December 1941. Dick Rivaz was tail gunner to Leonard Cheshire, one of the most famous RAF pilots of the Second World War, flying in Whitleys with No. 102 Squadron and latterly in Halifaxes with No. 35 Squadron.
Tail Gunner is unique among wartime memoirs, being written within months of the events Rivaz describes, and with all the immediacy of one who was in the very thick of the action. He gives graphic descriptions of his experiences on night bombing attacks against heavily defended enemy targets like Duisberg, Dusseldorf and Essen, and relates a dramatic shoot-out with German fighters over La Rochelle in broad daylight during July 1941. He also tells how, on two consecutive night raids to Cologne, he narrowly escaped disaster. On the first occasion the bomber was set on fire, and the second time it crash-landed in the sea where Rivaz spent eight hours in a dinghy before being rescued. Subsequently he was rescued a second time from the Channel after his aircraft was forced to ditch.
Rivaz paints a clear and dramatic picture of his life as a rear gunner, describing his thoughts and actions in the rear gun turret during combat. He also reveals the fine spirit of comradeship which developed in RAF bomber crews during the Second World War. Tail Gunner has been described as one of the outstanding books of the war and is without doubt an important addition to our appreciation of the men who fought the bomber offensive.

Richard Rivaz was born in India in 1908 and on his return to England studied painting at the Royal College of Art. He volunteered for the RAF in 1940, and trained as an air gunner. At the end of the war he was collecting material for a history of RAF Transport Command when, on 13 October 1945, the Liberator in which he was a passenger caught fire on take off from Brussels, killing all on board.