Journey to the Horizon: Escape and Evasion during World War II: 2021

ISBN-13: 9789083086019 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 272 str.

HANS ONDERWATER;Brian Lissette

O autorze

Hans Onderwater MBE (1946) is a historian, researcher and author from the Netherlands. He was a teacher and a member of the National Reserve Corps of the Royal Netherlands Army for 40 and 30 years respectively. Hans is also the historian of No.II (Army Co-operation) Squadron, the oldest fixed-wing Squadron in the world. He wrote three books about this famous RAF Squadron. As the secretary of the Food & Freedom Foundation Hans was involved in the commemorations of Operations Manna and Chowhound, the Allied food drops over starving Holland in April and May 1945. Hans was secretary of the Netherlands Coastal Defence Museum, governor of the War and Resistance Museum in Rotterdam and chairman of the Documentation Group 40-45. Hans identified several airmen who were buried. He also found the next of kin and arranged for visits to the graves and crash sites of their loved ones. For his research, his many publications and much other work Hans did in the service of the Netherlands, HM Queen Beatrix made him a member of the Order of Oranje-Nassau. In January 2017 HM Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain honoured with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.Since 1974 he has written 27 books about World War Two, of which a number were also published in English. He also co-operated in the making of a number of documentary films in Canada and the United Kingdom. Hans is married to Marjoan since 1970. They live in Barendrecht, not far from Rotterdam. Brian Lissette (1941) is a 30 year veteran of the New Zealand Police. He researched the history of his uncle Warrant Officer Leslie Lissette RNZAF for some 20 years. He united descendants of the crew of the Lancasters ND530 and ND556, who reside in Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand. He paid tribute to his uncle at his grave in the French town of Chaintreaux, France in 2015. He located Hans Onderwater in 2017 via a Google search. Since then the joined forces to write this book. Brian hosted Hans and his wife Marjoan at his home in February 2020 during their visit to New Zealand. There they decided to work together. This is their first joint project about men who fought, died, endured or evaded capture. It also honours Warrant Officer Leslie Lissette, who gave his life staying at the controls of a burning Lancaster, ensuring the safe descend by parachute of his crew, and Pilot Officer Leonard Barnes who did the same but who escaped death in the cockpit. Brian married Jean in 1967. They reside in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand.