Unwanted hero : the flying career of Squadron Leader Donald Barnard DFC, 1937-1955

Donald Barnard joined the RAF as a bomber pilot. Shot down over France, he evaded capture and was sent to Asia in 1945. Disapproving of the delay in recovering prisoners of war after their horrific treatment by the Japanese, he stole a Dakota and rescued 25 POWs to be later court-martialed and dismissed from the RAF. "Donald Barnard came to England from St. Lucia to join the RAF as a bomber pilot. In September 1942, on his second tour of operations, he was shot down over northern France. He evaded capture and made it to Spain via an escape network ...He was rewarded with the Distinguished Flying Cross while missing in action. After his return to England, [he] became a Spitire test-pilot, flying in excess of 1 000 individual aircraft. He was then posted to the Far East where he flew supply dropping operations in 1945. In Burma, disapproving of the delay in recovering emaciated RAF pilots, he flew to Bangkok - defying the authorities - to collect twenty-five prisoners and take them to hospital in Rangoon. After a full court martial, he was dismissed from the RAF. After the war, [he] flew civilian aircraft in Australia and Great Britain, joining No. 2 Civil Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit in Norfolk in 1953. He flew his last aircraft in 1955 and died in 1997, at the age of 79."--Book jacket