Any Recent Good Books? – Tell Here!

“Betrayal At Pearl Harbour” or how churchill lured Roosevelt into War By
James Rubridger & Eric Nave, if half of this is true it’s a wonder the Americans
are still talking to Great Britain:rolleyes:
Regards Phil.

Just picked up Bill Gunston’s “Bombers of the West” at a car boot sale for 50p:) 🙂

I have had his “Fighters of the Fifties” for many years and very much enjoyed reading it – and occasionally dip into it again.

Roger Smith.

Hurricane R4118 By Peter Vacher. I couldn’t put it down once I had opened it. ISBN 1 904943 07 1. No you can’t have my autographed copy, nor can you borrow it.:p

..heads up for Volume II of the history of the premier Luftwaffe fighter unit in the defence of the Reich, JG 300, written by Jean-Yves Lorant and Richard Goyat and published by Eagle Editions. Rowan Bayliss (writing in Scale Aircraft Modelling) described Vol I as containing ‘some of the most gripping personal accounts of air combat I have ever read’. Volume II again is chock full of dramatic & thrilling first hand descriptions from the pilots caught up in some of the desperate air battles over the Reich and the Eastern Front through late 1944 and 1945 – covered in detail over 350 pages; the massive sorties over the Reich during November, December 1944, the death of Klaus Bretschneider, the Sturmgruppe on the Eastern Front during February 1945, ground attack sorties against US and Soviet armies, Wasserbomb missions against the Danube bridges, the desertion of Ernst Schroeder – plenty here to make your hair stand on end and probably one of the the last and most detailed Luftwaffe Jagdgeschwader unit histories to appear …Pages of profile artwork by Tom Tullis and co-author Richard Goyat…project translation by Neil Page….thats me …

moderators..can we make this thread a sticky ?..cheers

Eric “Winkle” Brown : “Wings on my sleeve”. Strongly recommended:D He signed my book and I had a short chat with him:D

I completely agree an its an outstanding insight into test flying of a time when there were so many new powerful piston engined aircraft to be flown. I loved this book and recently bought the hardback. Unfortunately I missed him at Duxford signing earlier this year.
Another good book I just finished was “D-DAY Plus One” about a Typhoon pilot shot down and on the run in France.
Currently reading “Stapme” for the first time.

Eric “Winkle” Brown : “Wings on my sleeve”. Strongly recommended:D He signed my book and I had a short chat with him:D

I liked Rowland Whites book Vulcan 607,too:D

Recently re-read Winged Victory by VM Yeates for the first time in almost thirty years. It really emphaises how for true realism a novel has to be written by soemone who was actually there at the time. What really comes across (other than the deep cynism) is the balance of life of an RFC airman in WW1 – life was mostly boring and there was a lot of sitting around talking, with occasional spells of terror and excitement, and that war is often frightening and tragic but is sometimes amusing in bizarre ways, above all is the desire to stay alive. He also has a great understanding of human nature – the occasion when they go up drunk and come back almost unscathed – they are all standing around laughing about it and ignore the depressive French Canadian Dubois when he trys to point out that he was not drunk, clearly because it would ruin their great story – showing Yeates deep and subtle understanding of human nature. The differences in motivation between individuals and the conflicts that this causes are also crearly brought out. Finally, but not least, the challenges of flying the Camel are brilliantly brought out.

I believe that it has to be one of the three greatest war novels, along with All Quiet on the Western Front and The Cruel Sea, although it has to be said that Monsarrat is a greater writer than Yeates and The Cruel Sea is a more vivid and better written book if one is uber-critical.

Most dissapointing book recently read – Bombers over Berlin by Cooper which I thought would would shed a wider light on the Allied bombing of Berlin from 1940-5. Instead it covers the 1943-4 winter campaign, which was far better covered by Middlebrook in The Berlin Raids. The two books clearly illustrate the difference between doing proper research and not doing proper research – the Cooper book appears to have been largely drawn from official records, much of which suffer from the fog of contemporaneous accounts. So if one is to believe Cooper RAF air gunners shoot down huge numbers of attacking German fighters and every plane crew always behaves in a heroic manner, invaribly battling through to Berlin against impossible odds if need be to drop thier bombs on the correct aiming point, moral never suffers as bomber losses increase and the most generous possible estimation is made of daamge inflicted on the ground. Whereas if one reads Middlebrook one gains a more realistic shade of grey – the routine shedding of bombs to gain height (and more chance of survival) over the North Sea by a lot of crews, the problem of “creep back” where many crews dropped thier bombs on the first target marker that they saw and turned for home and the measures taken by bomber command to minimise “creep back” and its effects, the increasing number of early returns as the campaign continued, the irritation by crews who WERE bravely battling through the defences against what they saw as “fringe merchants”, and the routine overloading of planes by 1(?) Group and the impact on thier loss rates. None of these are even hinted at in the Cooper book, still less can one see what one can see in the Middlebrook book – that on some nights more bomber crew were killed than people on the ground.

Just rediscovered Peter Campbell’s “Tails of the Fifties”. A series of reminiscences by light aircraft owners and pilots from a golden age of flying simply for the fun of it. Lovely

In a similar vein, look out for a second hand copy of “Flying for Fun” by Jack Parham. Basically his experiences in bumbling around Southern England in an Aeronca C2 in the late 1930s. Another joy to read on a rainy autumn evening.

A final classic. “Wind in the Wires” by Duncan Grinell-Milne. A first hand account from a teenager flying in the opening year of WW1. We tend to forget that after Farman pushers, the BE-2 was regarded as a “hot ship”. And flown with due aggression too!

Nemesis. Japan, 1944/45. I dissent from Max Hastings’ articles on Iraq. Journalist disdain of politicians still creeps in here – Truman doctoring documents to look good for history – but…robustly and accessibly, he demolishes the conspiracy that Japan knew they were done for, so the Bombs were unnecessary, aimed at overawing Stalin. Will Lefties now stop teaching this, please?

(Last year’s History fun on RN’s Battle of Britain victory, and Sealion as never a real Plan.) Oxford U/Bodleian Library is issuing facsimiles of WW2 official pocketbooks – guidance to GIs on behaviour in UK &tc. They’ve now done a 1940 German briefing book on UK, invasion, occupation. A lot of work for an Unplan.

“Life’s Too Short To Cry” by the late Tim Vigors DFC a Battle of Britain pilot and ex Piper aviation dealer at Kidlington.

The Dancing Dodo

Marauder crashes on Romney Marsh in 1944. Aircraft discovered in mid-seventies. Crew inside alll dead. Dog tags they are wearing are of people who fought in the war, flew in Marauders but who survived the war.

Great bit of reading shame about some unneccesary theatrical and far fetched additions to the story line.

Catch 22

500 pages of pure, brilliant twaddle.

Bambadier wants to be relieved from flight duties having completed 40 missions. After being told that the mission quota has been increased to 45 he wishes to be grounded on medical terms as he is insane and does not want to put his life at risk any longer by flying more missions.

Doctor does not accept that he is mad on the grounds that he recognises the danger of flying in combat unlike those who happily fly into combat, risking their lives and not asking to be grounded. They are clearly mad but don;t know it. He knows it so can’t be mad.

Hilarious.

For those of you visiting Old Warden on Sunday, please call into the shop to see the launch of this excellent book by Nick Barnard. It is a great way to learn about the basics of flying and has some really illustrations inside.

Nick will be in the Shop on Sunday to sign copies of the book.

Squadron Leader Jerry Pook’s ‘RAF Harrier Ground Attack Falklands’ (not the snappiest title I grant you) was a superb read about Harrier GR3 operations in the Falklands, and a good counterbalance to the Sea Harrier books such as ‘Sea Harrier over the Falklands’ and Hostile Skies’.

Like many Falklands books, this details how surprisingly ‘ramshackle’ some of the operations were, and how the aircrews had to undertake a lot of very dangerous missions with barely adequate equipment. It cuts somewhat against the ‘RAF did nothing in the Falklands’ view that can sometimes come across in texts from more of a Royal Navy perspective.

Most of all though, the book really captures the thrill and the danger of regular low-level missions in a Harrier (in some cases frighteningly low level – there is a recon image looking slightly up at an Argentine soldier levelling a Blowpipe at the aircraft taking the photo!). It’s a fascinating account of the ground attack, close-support and tactical reconaissance missions typically carried out by the RAF Harrier GR3s, while the Sea Harriers tended to cover the air-to-air missions (and the majority of the glory).

Doug Stanton’s In Harms Way is a very powerful read, thought provoking and is a book that you cant put down, “just one more page” turns in to another chapter by the time you relise it you have finished the book, if you know of the story of the USS Indianapolis it open the whole tragic event up, if you dont know the story then you sure will after reading the book, it can be picked up cheaply on E-bay, Amazon etc:

Mike Rossiter’s Ark Royal (The Life, Death and Rediscovery of the Legendary Second World War Aircraft carrier) details the search for the wreck of the carrier & its discovery it also highlights her service history in the Med & Atlantic its a must have book.

Thanks for the posts, everyone.

If contributors have time to amplify on why the like their book so much (“What? it’s just a darn good read!”) without ‘spoiling it’, thanks especially to you.

I’d like to be persuaded about it’s merit 🙂

I recently picked up a second-had copy of “The Ravens” by Christopher Robbins.

The Ravens were pilots, all volunteers on secondment from the US military, who flew in Laos during the Vietnam war as spotters for air and artillery strikes. Their usually mount was the Cessna O-1 Birddog, and in later years the T-28 Trojan.

Officially, the war in Laos did not exist, both the North Vietnamese and the USA denied they had troops there. In fact, thousands of North Vietnamese were invading the country and pouring down the Ho Chi Minh trail on their way to the South, and the Americans were fighting a vigorous war against them from the air.

I found this a fascinating story, with quite a similarity to the exploits of the WW1 aviators both in the fighting and the effects of combat on the aircrew. Although I have spent some time in both Vietnam and Cambodia, I have never quite made it into Laos (it’s still on my wish-list).

If you can pick up a copy of this book, I’m sure that you will find it an engrossing read. Highly recommended.

“The Handley Page Victor” by Roger Brooks, volume I, prototype and mark 1 and volume II, the mark 2 and appendicies. An edited collection of articles and publications about the Victor, some written by the people involved in its creation. Not a story book or an easy bedtime read but they tell everything you’d ever want to know about the Victor.

And not recent al all;
Balloons to Bucanneers; Yorkshire’s role in Aviation since 1785. by Brian Catchpole. A really good read but it probably helps if you’re from Yorkshire.

And I agree with Old_Fart’s recommendation of “In Harm’s Way”.

Two recent reads

“Shot Down and On The Run” Garham Pitchfork

And
“Dad’s War” by Dan McCaffery

Squadron Leader Jerry Pook’s ‘RAF Harrier Ground Attack Falklands’ (not the snappiest title I grant you) was a superb read about Harrier GR3 operations in the Falklands, and a good counterbalance to the Sea Harrier books such as ‘Sea Harrier over the Falklands’ and Hostile Skies’.