Needing help with research (1 Viewer)

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Annabelle

Recruit
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3
Mar 20, 2022
Hello friends.
I'm writing a children's novel set in 1944/1945 Northern France and I've got stuck on an aircraft problem, so I'm reaching out to see if you have any ideas..
Twelve year old Pierre finds a messenger pigeon on a parachute dropped by the allies. He's not good at much and a bit of a scaredy-cat, but he is really good at art. So he decides to spy on the occupying forces and use his artistic skill to send back detailed intel via the pigeon. Having sent the intel off, he finds out that he didn't have the full picture, and if allies bomb the Nazi launch site outside his village, they'll set off the munitions he discovered stored underground in tunnels beneath his village.
So I'm at the end, where he's trying to get a message back to the UK to warn them about the munitions. He's been caught using a radio at an empty checkpoint and is imprisoned in an old airfield tower. He escapes (Yeah, I know, but it's fiction so bear with!) and it's his last chance to get a message back to the allies. So hiding in the shadows he overhears that the plane is going to the English coast (Is it a bomber? A spy plane? Ideas welcome!) So he stowaways on that plane as it flies across the channel and somehow ends up having a fight with the pilot who realises he's hiding in the back (is that possibel? Could he hide?)
Now here's my big problem. How can I dispatch the pilot? Was going to have a fight and Pierre hits the eject button, but it wasn't invented then was it?! Could doors be open and pilot falls out? Could any German planes fly with open doors? Was auto pilot invented in planes and could it be on auto-pilot while fighting then he falls out? Could there be a parachute in the back for Pierre to put on as plane crash-lands on the English coast?
The good thing about fiction is that you can be as far-fetched as you like. The bad thing is that you have to be ever-so-slightly historically correct and a teeny bit credible.
So before I write a complete load of twaddle (more twaddle than it already is) please let me know your ideas.
Thanks in anticipation!
 
You mean german bomber i think. make it part of Operation Steinbock - Wikipedia then look up the planes that flew against Blighty in the order of battle in the link.

I would take the He177 that is a big bomber with being prone to develop an engine fire. Let him hide in a tool car because the base would be guarded and he is small enough to do so, for explanation of how he gets to the plane in the first place.
And in your story the engine fire could be why everybody jumps. Kid crawls back to the cockpit en there you go.

This is a He177 from that period. see for more pictures Heinkel He177

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How about making the aircraft a captured Allied recon plane (Lysander for example), which will be used to deliver a German spy to the UK. The interior is large enough to stash a smaller person for the short trip. No need to kill off the pilot/spy as the child convinces him to help. Let's say the pilot was on the fence and was near-ready to defect.
 

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You mean german bomber i think. make it part of Operation Steinbock - Wikipedia then look up the planes that flew against Blighty in the order of battle in the link.

I would take the He177 that is a big bomber with being prone to develop an engine fire. Let him hide in a tool car because the base would be guarded and he is small enough to do so, for explanation of how he gets to the plane in the first place.
And in your story the engine fire could be why everybody jumps. Kid crawls back to the cockpit en there you go.

This is a He177 from that period. see for more pictures Heinkel He177

View attachment 661974
Thanks so much. Great ideas here. Really helpful :)
 
In my version, as in Snautzer's, Pierre manages to bail out of the He 177 and upon landing, is run through by a farmer with his pitchfork. I know it's for kids, mine is the screen play for Tom Cruise.
Haha, that's hilarious. Love it!!
 
How about making the aircraft a captured Allied recon plane (Lysander for example), which will be used to deliver a German spy to the UK. The interior is large enough to stash a smaller person for the short trip. No need to kill off the pilot/spy as the child convinces him to help. Let's say the pilot was on the fence and was near-ready to defect.
OOH! That's exciting! He's already made friends with some German soldiers who don't want to be there. Great idea. Thank you!
 

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