The Violent Skies

Captain Dirk Gallagher and his ten-man crew took their new YB-40 Escort Bomber into the teeth of the Luftwaffe in mid-1943, as part of an answer to the increased bomber losses. Assigned to the 91st Bomb Group at Alconbury, England, they soon gained a reputation and ran up an impressive tally of destroyed German aircraft. Dirk had his own war with himself, after losing his wife at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and later losing the RAF Flight Corporal he was in love with at Biggin Hill. He met and later married RAF Flight Corporal Lorraine Smythe, remained in England after his tour ended, and raised his family on a farm. After losing his co-pilot and tail gunner on a mission into the Ruhr, he no longer wished to fly as a civilian.