Andrew WISEMAN - AN ALIEN SKY
I met Andrew Wiseman several years ago when he assisted me in his role as an interpreter (he was in his eighties at this point!). Somehow the conversation got around to me having an interest in WW2 and he said, in a matter of fact way, "I flew in Halifaxes in the war, was shot down and ended up as a prisoner of war". At this point everything else I was doing stopped! Due to the late hour (he had a 2-3 hour journey home), politeness and knowing that not everybody wants to talk about there wartime experiences I did not really press him further, however, we had a brief conversation about his (amazing!) life. On going our separate ways I thanked him for his assistance with the job that I had been dealing with that evening and for the job that he had done 60+ years ago.
For the next few years I would recount the story of how I met this amazing gentleman, wished I'd had more time to speak to him and how his life story would make an amazing book. A couple of years ago I saw him on a program about The Great Escape and then in the past few weeks a colleague leant me a book (The Red Line by John Nichol) which gave a brief account of Andrew Wisemans experience during the RAF's bloodiest raid on Germany. My interest ressurected I did a bit of Internet searching to see if I could find anything else about this remarkable man. I'm glad to say that I found An Alien Sky an excellent autobiography/biography which I have just finished reading. I can't recommend it enough!
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