In this similar daring bid for freedom, a vaulted gymnastics horse was used to cover the entrance to a 100ft tunnel. John is only believed to have had a peripheral role in the attempt, but fondly recounted memories of the 'Wooden Horse' escape in October 1943. One subject his father never opened up about was the Great Escape because the reprisal executions of 50 RAF officers at the camp left him devastated. Since 2014, he has spent hours in the National Archives learning more about John's 43 raids - including daylight missions to bomb German cruisers at Brest. Gerald took notes from talks he had with his father in the final years of his life, but did not have the time to research them further until he retired. John left the RAF in 1958 and died aged 54 in 1973, with his son Gerald now releasing Bomber Command Pilot to document his wartime bravery. In the final months of the Second World War he endured a dreaded Long March - where prisoners who could not keep up with a walk were shot. John bored witness to the 'Wooden Horse' escape as well as the preparations for the Great Escape on March 24, 1944, but was not involved. When he recovered, the Nazis slammed him in Stalag Luft III, which became better know as the Great Escape camp immortalised in the Steve McQueen film in 1963. Pictured: Gerald's book on his father's incredible survival story The plane was blown to pieces on impact and another pilot - who saw the 'orange fireball which lit up the sky' - told his superiors no one could have lived. Their Lancaster was blasted by anti-aircraft guns, erupted in flames and plummeted to the ground. John and his crew dropped multiple direct hits on the Bavarian U-Boat diesel engine factory in the city but got caught in enemy fire.
He chugged across 600 miles of enemy territory at just 250ft in the heavy bomber and reached his target. The pilot had been set the daunting task of flying his Lancaster in a daylight raid on Augsburg without any fighter escorts. He also highlighted how the RAF hero was chucked in Stalag Luft III - the Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war camp made famous by the Great Escape. Gerald Sherwood, 80, from St Austell, Cornwall, told how Wing Commander John 'Flap' Sherwood took part in a daring mission before being captured in his new book. The son of a Bomber Command pilot whose plane exploded in a fireball in Nazi Germany has revealed his father's incredible story of survival during the war.
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