Robert Body

Introduction by Helen Body:

My husband, Robert 'Bob' Body, died in 2024, aged 73, having dedicated his life to researching and documenting the work of the RAF Special Duties squadrons of the Second World War, sparked by the story of his uncle Flight Lieutenant John Menzies, a pilot with No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron who was lost on operations into occupied Europe. Bob wrote two books on the subject–Taking the Wings of the Morning (2003), about the search for Flight Lieutenant Menzies; and Runways to Freedom (2016), a history of the squadrons.

On inheriting his uncle’s medals in 1985, Bob became determined to find out what had happened to him. He began to research the work of the two highly secret squadrons, based at RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire, and to glean information that had been unavailable for many years.

In 1997 the remains of Flight Lieutenant Menzies were discovered in the Ijsselmeer, in the Netherlands, and he was buried with full military honours alongside his crew in the little town of Makkum, in Friesland. This discovery marked the beginning of the most serious phase of Bob’s research work.

Born in Egham, Surrey, Bob was the son of Anne (nee Menzies) and John Body, a town planning officer. After Strode’s College, Egham, Bob worked as a technical officer for a manufacturer of building supplies. 

Alongside the day job, Bob worked hard to assist family members of the squadrons’ air and ground crew, and, in the earlier years, the veterans themselves, to understand exactly what the work had entailed. At the outset, some of the records were still unavailable, and those that could be accessed were in hard copy or microfilm/fiche only, necessitating hours of transcription in the National Archives at Kew. Bob built up an enormous library of records, which he shared with the relatives of those who had served. As time went on, and through meeting the families of the other crew members at the memorial, a group of around 400 relatives was formed, which continues to this day (www.tempsford-squadrons.info).

This new book (I’ll Come to Thee by Moonlight) is to be posthumously published in Bob's name, chronicling the genesis of the Lysander and Hudson pick up operations, the training of the aircrew who flew them, and the agents who were infiltrated and exfiltrated, along with descriptions of several missions–often the words of those taking part.