British W.W.II Bomber Books

The two volumes “RAF Bomber Command and it’s aircraft” (Goulding & Moyes) I find good – going into details of specifications, etc. as well as looking at individual types.

Regrettably I only have Vol. 2 !*?!*!

Roger Smith.

They Don’t name ’em like that any more…

I know there were defined rules for assigning names, but fancy calling a bomber a FAWN – wouldn’t that be more suited to a nimble, twitchy, fighter than a bomber…..

Paul F

These are the first 20 of the 115 . . .

Avro 533 Manchester
Airco DH11 Oxford
Sopwith Cobham
B&P Bourges
Airco Okapi
Nieuport London
Grahame-White Ganymede
Tarrant Tabor
Siddeley Sinaia
Airco DH15 Gazelle

Blackburn Swift
Fairey IIID
Blackburn Dart
HP Hanley
Avro Aldershot
DH27 Derby
B&P Bolton
Vickers Virginia
Vickers Vixen
Fairey Fawn

Did somebody mention 115 types? ?All bombers? In a period of just 20 years? Bloody hell, must have been a new one every couple of weeks. (bit like Jap car makers). Surely they didn’t all enter service? Imagine trying to do a book to cover that lot. A lifetime project, I would imagine.

Imagine, too, the effort wasted in producing so many different aircraft intended to basically do the same job. I don’t know the inter-war Brit bombers particularly well – if there’s 115 of them, I’m sure I don’t.

How about the Albemarle, Windsor (how many of them were built?),Botha, Buckmaster, …hmm, too many to mention.

Regards

Wombat

Slightly off topic, but I first became aware of some of these types ie Vickers Wellesley, Vickers Warwick, Beaufort and Walrus etc from the ‘Commando’ comic books series that I used to read as a lad,
Does anyone know the history of the series and were the stories loosely based on true events?
Even if they were fiction, as I recall they were well illustrated and certainly went a long way to fuel my interest in old aircraft and the deeds of their crews and brought some of the less glamorous types to my notice.
As I said sorry for the interruption and good luck James with the ideas.
Alan.

…did they have any walkrounds or tech photos of original or surviving airframes?

These, and aircrew accounts, are the only things, missing from an otherwise excellent book.

Geoff

It would be hard to beat this one I think.

Sounds like you are right Geoff! Given the plethora of other subjects we’ll scratch that off the list. On the other hand, did they have any walkrounds or tech photos of original or surviving airframes?

That was all remembered off the top of your head, wasn’t it? 😀

A good book on the Battle is Air-Britain’s ‘The Battle File’ Only half the book is comprised of the a/c histories, the rest has chapters on – Specifications & tenders, the Battle & its competitors, production & development, early RAF service, the Battles go to France, operations to 9 May 1940, the Battle of France, anti-invasion operations, Northern Ireland, East Africa, Iceland, UK training, Canada, Australia, South Africa & Southern Rhodesia, Exports, testing & specialised units, preserved Battles. There is also a Roll-of-honour for aircrew who lost their lives in Battles, eight pages of colour profiles, plus numerous photos, and a good index.

It would be hard to beat this one I think.

Geoff.

“Forgotten Bombers of the RAF” by Ken Wixey, Arms & Armour 1997 is currently for sale via Abe Books at GBP 12.50. (This is not an advertisement, it’s purely for information! I have no connection with Abe Books, just as an occasional customer.)

Seeing that it is a good “general” book on the topic, and was still remaindered very early, I hope that your proposed more specialised “single-plane in depth” books do better

Hi Paul,
Yes, we don’t remainder, we do unrealistically small print runs instead. :rolleyes: Seriously though, we expect to manage in this obscure niche publishing.

Mmm I like it – “The Bumper Book of HP Bombers” 😀

Forgotten Bombers of the RAF

On my bookshelf at home I have a hardback copy of the above book – it covers (from memory) Stirling, Halifax(?), Hampden, Whitley, Botha, Blenheim, Wellington, Battle(?) and possibly others.
Sorry, can’t remember author or publisher offhand.

I picked it up at a “remainder” outlet here in UK a few years ago and it was only about a year or two after first imprint. While it is not an in depth look at any of the aircraft it covers it gives a good summary on each.

Seeing that it is a good “general” book on the topic, and was still remaindered very early, I hope that your proposed more specialised “single-plane in depth” books do better 🙁 .

Paul F

It is only once one becomes familiar with a certain type that one realises that much of what has been published is either apocryphal, or just plain wrong!

Yes, I would love to see good books on the following:

Vickers Wellington, Warwick (and a chapter on the Wellesley)

Bristol twin engined aircraft – Beaufighter, Beaufort and the late and post war types, Buckmaster and Brigand.

Fairey Gannet (!)

Avro Anson

I agree with JDK’s ideas as well – a bumper Handley Page book would be quite something…

Bruce

Steve Bond – PM on the way… 😉

Hmmmmmmmm

I’d love to do some more books, search on the main Key site under the books and you might even find my first adventure in writing…… :diablo:

Tim

Thanks for the responses folks!

My first point would be that if you’d like to see a book on something, don’t just wait, give it a go. It’s hard work, rewarding as a learning excercise and possible. Frankly we are always stuck between ‘yes, we can publish it’ and folks saying ‘no I couldn’t write it’. If we all wait for someone else, it’ll never happen. There’s a lot of people on the forum who I know are sitting on enough data to make the book, and are literate enough to write some(or all) of it – it’s breaking the duck that’s hardest.

If you’ve ever thought “there should be a book on that” and you are passionate but not expert about it, why not carry on researching (or learning about) it as if you were compiling a book? We’d be happy to take on something that someone had done the legwork, but was not comfortable with the writing. The time is in the research, not the writing. The discipline of knowing you are going to have to present your story and conclusions to a critical audience (like a school essay! 😉 ) focusses the mind and certainly teaches you a lot about the type you are studying. I’ve found a pile of fascinating facts on the Lysander, and got help from (literally) all over the world. A small benifit is I also get to choose who I dedicate it to, as well.

Between the wars stuff is very hard to do well. There are few if any survivors, to start with. There was little documentation at the time (compared to what was produced in W.W.II) and few technical photos as well; as I discouvered when researching the Stranraer. However a book on the Hendon, Bombay & Heyford could just about be done – if we had a researcher, or an author. Most of the work would be getting photos.

As Alex has said, he’s getting there with a Hawker Hart family book, and that will be good; we are blessed with quite a few survivors too.

I’ve always been fascinated by the twixt-wars Boulton Paul bombers.

But I too realise the the Sidestrand and Overstrand are hardly charismatic. Certainly not the stuff to equal young Master H Potter in the sales charts.

Maybe not going to be a big seller, but we do have some good contacts with the Boulton Paul Heritage group. It’s perfectly possible. That’s a good idea Moggy. H’mmm. I know someone whose just about finnished a Defiant book for us. 😀

The Air Britain stuff is mostly excellent, but we would major more on photos, plans, details as well as history and numbers. I’m trying to get more ‘what they were like to fly’ in as I reckon that’s something often overlooked. There’s room for a new Beaufort book, and I’d agree the Whitley could be done with the greater info available today.

The 4+ books are top notch too, and they are certainly picking off the neglected types too. I’d (stupidly) forgotten the Wellington book. A cracker and complimented by the Crowood item. The Warwick. Like the Albermarle I just don’t think there’s enough photos and sales would be in the tens, not even hundereds I suspect. Pity. If a bunch of photos and data fell into our hands (or 4+) then I think something could be done, but it’s be quite marginal.

HP57 – one of the germs of the idea was my realisation that a book on the Halifax is eminently possible now – I had a copy of the construction manual pass through my hands recently, and a good deal got copied. As you say, there’s folks documenting the Canadian rebuild. It’s be a great thing to do.

Any more?

Correct, K5085-K5098, plus the prototype Hendon, K1695 which first flew at Harmondsworth piloted by Norman Macmillan on 25 November, 1930, his last Fairey prototype. It eventually crashed but was rebuilt with numerous changes.

What an excellent thread! So many of these fascinating aeroplanes, many of which have been ignored in print. I would be more than happy to contribute in any way I can, mainly photographs (yes Alex, lots of Hawker biplanes), but I have also been fortunate enough in recent years to have good contact with aircrew who flew many of them. For example, I am currently in contact with a pilot who flew Fairey Hendons, and they only built 14 of them I think.

James,

Great initiative to cover the lesser known types. Although I would always be interested in new books on the subject I don’t consider myself an author, there are other people more talented in this field. Apart from that I am more interested in the nuts and bolts of RAF bomber types from a modelling and aircraft archeology field of view.

I very much enjoy the books about the recovery and restoration of types such as the books by Graham Warner on the Blenheim or Black Six by Russ Snadden althought these books cannot be had for a tenner of course.

The books by 4+ or the various Polish publications showing a mix of black and white photographs, colour shots of preserved examples and extractions from manuals and/or drawings are very interesting. The 4+ book on the Wellington is a beautiful example with newly drawn images of structure and instrument panels supported by an incredible amount of detail shots taken in the two complete Wimpy’s in the UK, and I do hope that this will set a trend.

The Hampden could do with such detailed coverage as there is great interest in this type as well as the Whitley.

Some examples on my personal wishlist would be detailed photographic coverage of Hendon’s W1048 in combination with recovery photo’s in colour, the recovery and restoration using many photographs of Halifax NA337 in Trenton, I know that one of the members of the team, Rod Clarke, has made a lot of photographs on the progress of the restoration over the years.

The book Mustang Restored by Paul Coggan is also a good example.

Any other views?

Cheers

Cees

To add to mt earlier suggestions,the Vickers Warwick has been a bit neglected aswell. Never used as a bomber,but proved a decent ASR and transport aircraft.

Recently acquired a 2nd hand paperback copy of Stirling Wings by Jonathon Falconer (by same author – Stirling at War) first pub 10 years ago and in paperback sold for £10.99.
Not looked at it in depth yet but seems good.

Roger Smith.