Your less well known avaition books.

Whole-heartedly agree with A Thousand Shall Fall by Peden and Crosley’s They Gave Me A Seafire.

Some of the lesser-known titles I have on my shelf include (off the top of my head) Alcorn’s From Hell To Breakfast, Neville Parnell’s Beaufighters In The Pacific, the Clements/Gibson Coastal Strike, The Aegean Pirates by Bouwer and Thompson, Roy Watson’s lovely Bush Pilots Do It In Fours and On The Wing: To the Edge of the Earth with the Peregrine Falcon by Alan Tennant.

‘Antiques Of The Air’ by Michael F. Jerram, the issue with a front offside shot of the RNHF Swordfish in flight. An interesting look at what vintage aircraft/warbirds were flying in the U.K./U.S.A./Europe in the late 1970’s. It is good to see that over 30 years later the vast majority of the aircraft featured in the book are still here and flying. No doubt a 2012 version would be 3 times bigger!

Knights of the Air: The Life and Times of the Extraordinary Pioneers Who First Built British Aeroplanes – Peter King.

It covers Roe, de Havilland, Handley Page, the Short brothers and most of the rest of the UK pioneers up to the time they retired, died, got taken over or whatever.

A great book and very well written.

I’ve lent it to two or three people who’ve all tracked down copies for themselves.

Low Level Hell by Hugh Mills.

Snake Pilot by Randy Zahn.

Journal of a Plague Year 12, 20 and 5 by John Parrish.

All three of the above are about Vietnam, the first two being helicopter operations whilst the third is about Doctors in a medical complex but does have some aviation content.

One Man’s Window by Dennis Barnham. (Malta.)

A Wing and a Prayer by Harry H Crosby. (B17 Operations over Europe.)

Sgt. Pilot 741474 RAFVR by L G Batt.

I guess I have plenty of others but these spring to mind.

Regards,

kev35

SHIP BUSTERS,an older book that after all i’ve read still makes me shiver with admiration for the losses they took in beauforts/blenhiems and still carried on. TORPEDO LEADER by w/cdr patrick gibbs for the same reason, second CARRIER PILOT as it was one of the first books i read that made me realise just how terrible the attrition of deck operations was. ( which maybe why i joined the FAA and now understand the sheer difficulty of deck ops).

“Song of the Sky,” by Guy Murchie. A “Fate is the Hunter” from the viewpoint of a navigator/meteorologist.

A Dirty Dozen;-

Some fascinating autobiographies in mainly Civil Aviation or non-combat, basically all autobiographies. They were there, they did it. Much better than modern re-tellings by far ;-

Any of Alex Henshaw’s three books.

Pure Luck – A bio’ of T.O.M.Sopwith by the great and much missed Alan ‘Bunny’ Bramson.

My Life – Jean Batten. (Golden Age.)

Scott’s Book – C.W.A.Scott. (Golden Age.)

Dangerous Skies – Clouston. (Golden Age.)

The Sky My Kingdom – Hanna Reitsch. (Germany, 1930’s/’40’s.)

O.K, a few lesser known war books;- :diablo:

Winged Victory – V.M.Yeats. Thinly-disguised autobio’. Best RFC book – by a mile.

Low Attack – W/C John d.L.Wooldridge. (Written during the introduction of the ‘real’ Mossies into service by 105 Sq’n, and the best Mossie book bar none. This is where the legend began.)

Cloud Cover – Derek Gilpin Barnes. (Quite rare – only published on cheap paper during the war I think. See it – buy it, – it’s a real period classic.)

Moonless Night – B.A.’Jimmy’ James. (Wimpies and the ‘Great Escape’ amongst other adventures.)

Malta Spitfire – G.F.Beurling.

I Flew For The Fuhrer – Heinze Knoke. (Classic view from the other side.)

A few “war-less” titles….(well mainly war-free)

Flight of the Mew Gull – Alex Henshaw (His epic pre-war dash to the Cape)

Airymouse – Harald Penrose (His experiences in his Curry Wot)

Cloud Cuckooland – Harald Penrose (More experiences)

Adventure with Fate – Harald Penrose (His autobiography as Westland test pilot)

Airbourne – Neil Williams

Test Pilot – Neville Duke (Autobiography)

Vulcan Test Pilot – Tony Blackman

I’ll just drop by to third “Crash Pilot” – how any aircraft could get off the ground carrying cojones as big as his is beyond me.

Adrian

There is another book by Dick Grace – “Squadron of Death”. It covers the same era and much more. I have both

Richard

I’ll just drop by to third “Crash Pilot” – how any aircraft could get off the ground carrying cojones as big as his is beyond me.

Adrian

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. not WW2 but Vietnam Huey pilot. excellent read and one of those you dont want to put down. between that and “Sigh for a Merlin” Alex Henshaw and also “Wings on my Sleeve” by Eric Winkle Brown. both of the latter ive had to pleasure to sit n chat with in their homes whilst they signed my prints and their books

“The war diaries of Helmut Lipfert”

Top of his class at flying school, go to Berlin, take an Me 109 with a mate as far east till you find fighting and join in. Stalingrad, and the retreat from there in the air.

Fascinating, and well recommended!

oily

Well, one reason could be that there was simply an awful lot more aviation going on in WW2 than before or since. Another could be the well-noted British attachment to the period as their last days of glory. Also, it seems to be almost unique (with WW1) in there being a wide English-speaking interest in aircraft other than British and American. I do agree that there are a good number of excellent books about aviation before and after.

PS the aircraft are also more interesting! Generally.

It’s still only five years from one hundred…..! ‘Another could be the well-noted British attachment to the period as their last days of glory.’ Huh..?You mean like being at the leading edge of progress and technology since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution…? :diablo:

Night Fighter Over Germany: The Long Road to the Sky by Graham White

Thoroughly enjoyed it.