This week I have mostly been reading…

Arnhem – General Urquhart. Good stuff!

Rising Tide by Weir and Boyne-Soviet subs in the Cold War

XB-70 Valkyrie: NA’s Mach 3 Superbomber by Jenkins and Landis

Arrian’s history of Alexander the Great

I could add, though I am not yet intending to read them, these are recent additions to my book shelf as a few weeks ago a fellow member of our local historical society kindly gave me these three books:

‘The Big Show’ by Pierre Clostermann DFC (1951 edition)

‘The Flying Sailor’ by Rear-Admiral Andre Jubelin (1954)

‘War In The Air’ by Gerald Bowman (1956) This says it was published in conjunction with a BBC Television series. I doubt the series exists now. Seems like an all-encompassing history by the photos.

Are any of these rare? Or are they recommended?

Good eclectic mix there chaps & chappesses!!
Some of you (Dan particularly) appear to have my library too!

Anyone interested in the BoB should read Geoffrey Wellum’s First Light – fantastic account a superb writer.

“Aeroplane Affair” – J O Isaacs. Wonder why! :rolleyes:

2nd Tactical Air Force Volume one. My Grand-dad was in 175sqn 2TAF so its sort of a tribute if you like…

A biography on Frank Sinatra by Kitty Kelley,no wonder he tried to ban her from writing it if half of what she has written is true 😮

‘Russia’s Ekranoplans’ by Sergai Kommisarov (sp???, havent got the book by me at the moment 😮 ) published by Midland Counties- excellent for both words and pictures 🙂

Playboy magazine, fascinating articles (and pictures too)
________
VAPORIZER VOLCANO

I apparently can’t read…

Chuckle … nice one Dave … 😉

The Old Man and the Sea- Ernest Hemingway and Stanley Kubrick: The Complete Films- Paul Duncan. Also a book about Geisha girls but tis not to hand to quote the name. Nothing aviation wise im afraid! 🙂

I apparently can’t read…

But in the past week or so I have read ‘Wartime Memories of the RNZAF” by Keith and Nona Morris (and I was so interested I tracked down Nona and we had a really good chat on the phone – she is allowing me to use extracts from her book on my website). I have also been reading several articles in my stack of wartime RNZAF Contact magazines.

And today I went to the library and (after paying my fine, doh!) checked out five new books:

“AIRGUNNER – The Adventures of Flying Officer H. Lyver” told by Francis Jackson (author of “Passage To Tobruk”) Reed, 1944. Looks interesting, about an RNZAF Airgunner in the RAF – never seen the book before and I appear to be first to check it out, so it must have come out of very longterm storage.

“WAR IS HELL” by E.R. Smith, 2003. Brand new to the library, about an RNZAF pilot who flew CC Liberators.

“JUNGLE BOMBER – With Avengers and Corsairs in the Solomons” by Sir Frank Holmes. Self published, 2004. Another new book.

“NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE AIR WAR” by Alan Mitchell, 1945. Alan was a NZ War Correspondent who covered the European war, and this is all biographies of airmen and our squadrons.

And

SINGAPORE HARRIERS – Pictorial Record of the RNZAF No. 1 Aerodrome Construction Squadron: Malaya 1941-1942 by Frank McCarthy. I have read this before and its brilliant, a homemade book, typed on an old typewriter and all photocopied, butthe story is otherwise untold. I got it out again to get some details for Laurie Bean.

So, that’s what I’ll been reading over the next few weeks – or longer if I want to acrue another library fine.

Rereading Goodbye Darkness, by William Manchester about his wartime experiences as a Marine in the Pacific. Heckuva book.

If you could see the mess I’m sitting in with books all over the place near the computer it would probably scare you 🙂 Norrowa’s 109 book, Battle of Britain Then and Now, a biography of Don Gentile, the 359th FG history, Robertson’s book on the Spitfire, Camoflage and Markings Supermarine Spitfire, GI War by Ralph Martin, Escort to Berlin by Jeff Ethell and Garry Fry, JG26 Photo history by Don Caldwell, Cobras over the Tundra…and those are the ones I can reach from where I’m sitting 🙂

Dan

Hi

Well I’m very impressed you can all read – I thought we all came here for the pictures………..

Regards
John P

“Racing through Paradise” by Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. Another one of Bill Buckley’s sailing travelogue books, this one has him sailing the Pacific with a group of friends aboard his twin masted 80 something foot sailboat.

FYI…Buckley is/was a private pilot. He wrote about being a part-owner and flying an Ercoupe while a student at Yale in the late 40s for FLYING Magazine in 1977. It was a very funny story, a side I don’t usually see with Mr. Buckley.

“Racing through Paradise” by Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. Another one of Bill Buckley’s sailing travelogue books, this one has him sailing the Pacific with a group of friends aboard his twin masted 80 something foot sailboat.

I’m (for the 2nd time) reading Roger Freeman’s “Mighty Eigth War Diary”
What is ‘Gunner’ about – WWII air gunners?

Yep…it has photos of gunner stations intermingled with stories by Vets. My kind of book lots of phots and words by those who were there.

I’m (for the 2nd time) reading Roger Freeman’s “Mighty Eigth War Diary”
What is ‘Gunner’ about – WWII air gunners?