Seventy-two years to the day from being shot down into the freezing North Sea, Maurice 'Moggy' Mayne passed away. It was only a few weeks ago, the final goodbye, and rather sad that Maurice was denied the chance to see his book come out. But he knew the rest of us would soon ensure that his story could be heard. He also knew he had told that story well, with a typically mischievous sense of humour and a shocking candour.
When we gathered at a Gloucestershire crematorium for his farewell service recently, there was standing room only. The RAF was there in force, including a dashing Spitfire pilot from the Second World War. But most of his 217 Squadron colleagues were long gone. Barely 20 per cent of his fellow Beaufort flyers survived the war itself, having faced as much danger as our Spitfire heroes.
Hardly surprising, that alarming mortality rate, when the job was to fly directly at giant German battleships and drop a single torpedo, knowing the full force of enemy firepower could bring the British plane down at any second. Maurice 'Moggy' Mayne was a man of rare courage and character.
The crematorium was packed, yet how many more would have come, if his wartime friends had survived? How many more would have been there, if most of his peacetime friends had still been alive? Where would the organisers have put them all?
As it was, Maurice was 93 years old when he died, and so many had departed this world before him. Despite this, there were still more than enough admirers to fill the venue, and the mood was upbeat.
'Moggy' Mayne was an air gunner who ended up in the sea and survived after half the crew on his plane had died. He became a POW and escaped alone, almost making it back to his beloved Sylvia. Before that could happen, he almost lost his life on a death march during the final, chaotic months of the war. One moment Maurice looked finished, the next he was popping up as the ecstatic groom in a Devon wedding photo, his dream having come true at last. That's how strange life can be.
Sylvia and Maurice remained happily married for the best part of seventy years. He could so easily have been denied that happiness.
Maurice loved his Sylvia with a passion, but he wanted this book to be far more than a love story. He wanted the horrors of war to be recorded, and also the natural weaknesses of human beings when placed in dreadful situations. The war sought out those weaknesses, sometimes cruelly.
Yet 'Moggy' Mayne was a born survivor. It's funny, in a way, because even the timing of his death reminded us of that survival instinct.
I'm proud to have written Down But Not Out with this remarkable war hero. I think you'll like him.
Maurice ‘Moggy’ Mayne was a cricket-loving air gunner in the Second World War, with a pretty girlfriend back home in rural England. His turret was in a Bristol Beaufort and his pilot had to fly with almost suicidal bravery at giant German warships before releasing the torpedo. Down But Not Out is his remarkable story.