Miles Tripp
Miles Tripp was an English writer and former World War II bombardier, born on May 5, 1923, in Ganwick Corner, England, and who passed away in 2000. His military experience included flying bombing missions, during which he participated in the controversial bombing of Dresden, an event that deeply affected him. Tripp later expressed his internal conflict regarding this mission, stating that he had "agonized" over his role and ultimately sought to direct his bombs away from populated areas. His reflections on these traumatic experiences informed much of his writing, particularly in his novel *The Eighth Passenger: A Flight of Recollection and Discovery* (1969), where he explored the valor and struggles of British Royal Air Force crews.
After the war, Tripp transitioned to a career in law, practicing as a solicitor while also pursuing his passion for writing. He authored several novels, sometimes under the pseudonyms John Michael Brett and Michael Brett, and was noted for his contributions to the psychological suspense genre. His works include *Kilo Forty* (1963), which was adapted into a play, and *A Man Without Friends* (1970), which was made into a television drama. Tripp's literary legacy continues to be recognized, particularly through the preservation of his works in special collections, such as at the University of Delaware.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Miles Tripp
Fiction Writer and Playwright
- Born: May 5, 1923
- Birthplace: Ganwick Corner, England
- Died: September 2, 2000
- Place of death: Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, England
Biography
Miles Tripp was born in Ganwick Corner, England, on May 5, 1923, and died in 2000. He attended county schools in Hertfordshire. During World War II he flew bombing missions as a bombardier or bomb aimer. Tripp’s thoughts on those bombings, particularly the bombing of Dresden, Germany, were part of an article written by Tony Rennell and published in 2004 in The Observer.
According to the article, Tripp said that he had “agonized” over his participation in the Dresden bombing. He was in the second wave of bombing in a Lancaster armed bomber and what he saw on the ground “shocked” him. Everything was on fire. The city looked like a “crossword puzzle” with fire delineating the outlines. Because he felt that enough destruction had been caused, he directed his pilot to drop their bombs outside of the city where no one lived. However, after years of mental anguish over his part in the bombing, he realized that the evil was caused by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. He expressed regret for the great loss of life, but he said that the world would be in even worse shape had the Nazis won the war. He maintained that the evil had to be destroyed and he finally came to a kind of personal peace.
His experiences over Dresden were the major part of his novel The Eighth Passenger: A Flight of Recollection and Discovery (1969), which is his own rendition of the events and people in the Lancasters during and after the danger of World War II. In the book, he revealed what he considered to be the valor of the British Royal Air Force crews and the betrayal of these volunteer airmen by their own government, which pushed them beyond endurance.
After the war, Tripp studied law and practiced as a solicitor, writing in his free time. Besides writing under his own name, Tripp also wrote as John Michael Brett and Michael Brett. His novels are often listed with others by writers of psychological suspense, such as Michael Connelly, Andrew Vachss, Barbara Vine, and Minette Walters.
One of his novels, Kilo Forty (1963), was turned into a play, Death Is Catching, with the help of Jean McConnell. Another of his novels, A Man Without Friends (1970), was adapted for English television in 1972. His novel The Cords of Vanity (1989) is in the Special Collections at the University of Delaware with the Julian Symons Papers.