Page "Leslie Howard (actor)" Paragraph 27

Two books focusing on the final flight, Flight 777 ( Ian Colvin, 1957 ), and In Search of My Father: A Portrait of Leslie Howard ( Ronald Howard, 1984 ), concluded that the Germans shot down Howard's DC-3 for the specific purpose of killing him.

Howard had been travelling through Spain and Portugal, ostensibly lecturing on film, but also meeting with local propagandists and shoring up support for the Allied cause.

The Germans in all probability suspected even more surreptitious activities since German agents were active throughout Spain and Portugal, which, like Switzerland, was a crossroads for persons from both sides, but even more accessible to Allied citizens.

James Oglethorpe, a British historian specialising in the Second World War, has investigated Howard's connection to the secret services.

Ronald Howard's book explores in great detail written German orders to the Ju 88 Staffel based in France, assigned to intercept the aircraft, as well as communiqués on the British side that verify intelligence reports of the time indicating a deliberate attack on Howard.

These accounts also indicate that the Germans were aware of Churchill's whereabouts at the time and were not so naive as to believe he would be travelling alone on board an unescorted and unarmed civilian aircraft, which Churchill also acknowledged as improbable.

Howard and Chenhalls were not originally booked on the flight, and used their priority status to have passengers removed from the fully booked airliner.