Peter Hinchliffe, OBE, flew as a navigator with RAF Bomber Command from 1944 to 1945. His interest in the German night-fighter force stems from November 1944, when he was shot down by a night fighter over Belgium during an operational sortie. After a period as a schoolteacher postwar, Hinchliffe rejoined the RAF as a fighter controller, retiring from the RAF in 1966 and joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where his knowledge of German took him frequently to Germany.