What Are You All Reading Now!

From Dogfight to Diplomacy: A Spitfire Pilot’s Log 1932-1958 by Donald MacDonell.

Corsairville by Graham Coster. Very evocative story of the Imperial Airways African Flying Boats.

the log books of F/O J.E. Ledbetter (later S/L) – RCAF 1941 to 1965

Wartime Strannies and Cansos

Most Secret War by Dr R V Jones.

An amazing book about the ‘ battle of the beams ‘ and radar from a young man who had the ear of Churchill if needed.

My favourite anecdote from the book is about a Ju 88 built from crashed 88’s during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz that Farnbourough flew, but could never quite figure out what was wrong with it until a helpful German prisoner offered to look it over and see that all was well. He burst out laughing when he saw that Farnbourough had used wings from two different marks of 88, but didn’t notice they were each of a differeing size…. 😀

Just finished Antony Beevor’s ‘Stalingrad’. All I can say is I’m shocked.

Now started a review copy of Lane Wallace’s ‘My 10 Best Flights’. Looking forward to the U-2 experience!

Just finished Antony Beevor’s “D-Day: The Battle for Normandy” and whilst reading found out that my maternal grandfather was involved in the battle for Caen as a tank radio operator!

I now understand somewhat better why he never wanted to speak about it.

After The Battle The Third Reich Then And Now, a very good book.

Air Arsenal North America by Phil Butler and Dan Hagedorn.

Wonderful piece of research and really fascinating photographs.

Just hfinishede reading “Bomb Alley” by David Yates: a ratings view ofthe Falklands affair. Next in the schedule is “Winkle” Brown’s “Wings on my sleeve””

Just finished ‘We Gave Our Today’ by William Fowler and ‘Troop Leader’ by Bill Bellamy. Both very good reads. I’m slowly (and I mean slowly) working my way through a bography of Michael Wittman whilst concentrating on ‘Bombers First and Last’ by Gordon Thorburn whilst dipping into ‘Nemesis’ by Max Hastings now and again.

Soon to be started is Wings Over Windermere by our very own Pondskater.

Regards,

kev35

‘Spitfire Women’ by Giles Whittell.
And looking forward immensely to reading ‘Bluenoser Tales’, 352nd Fighter Group War Stories!

I currently have 3 books on the go. Two are reprints from 1942.
This:
http://www.lindsaybks.com/bks3/airc/index.html

& this:
http://www.lindsaybks.com/bks7/airweld/index.html

& the other is Shop Class as SoulCraft, Here’s the original essay which became the basis for the book:
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-soulcraft

Krueger’s Men by Lawrence Malkin

Outstanding book, going into detail about Operation Bernhard, the German counterfeit operation in WWII.

Just started. Tobruk: The Great Siege 1941-2 by William F Buckingham.

This book recomendation thread is great ! First light and mosquito victory have duely been read and crossed of the list , thanks for the heads up .
Just now I’m reading , Under the Wire by F/L William Ash MBE , reminds me of some film I’ve seen somewhere .

cheers Spike .

P.S. Please give your books to charity shops, because thats where I buy them !

Working my way through something titled Soldier In The Cockpit by Ron Pottinger. Very interesting account of a WWII Typhoon pilot. Many excellent photographs. Highly recommend.

Pretty recent (2007 copyright) and available from Amazon.uk as well as most U.S. sources.

DJR

Just started “1918 A very British Victory by Peter Hart”.

The Big Show

I was tidying up and found my hardback copy from Xmas about two years ago, I’ve read it countless times and just fancied getting into it again.

It was always a favourite of mine when I first started reading things like this when I was 13 or so.

this week I’m into “Permission Granted” – a neat little memoire/autobiography by S/L (Ret’d) Wess McIntosh (RCAF)… a light yet interesting read

They do sound tempting. Still in print?