Page 152 - Demo

152very successful WW II aircraft which, after a fair share of teethingproblems, became a devastating ground-attack aircraft in Normandy andNW Europe. Much of the book is related by veterans, pilots andgroundcrew, with the experienced author providing the background andinterlinking.It is a well-tried formula, provided that one remembers that memoriesare not infallible and that it is a good idea to check on items that mightraise the eyebrows of the average reader. For example, on page 63,where a pilot recalls a %u2018very rough%u2019 low-level anti-shipping attack onCherbourg Harbour on 24 October 1943, involving Nos 257 and 183Sqns (Typhoons) and No 263 Sqn (Whirlwinds): %u2018Anyway, out of 24aircraft we lost ten and eight pilots, two pilots being rescued from theChannel.%u2019 So what does RAF Fighter Command Losses, by the sameauthor, say? %u2018Seven aircraft lost including two landing in UK withcategory B damage and SoC, pilots safe; of the remaining five aircrafttwo pilots survived as PoWs and three were killed.%u2019Despite some blemishes, the many contributions from the veteransare good value, even if inevitably variable, and the book is generouslyillustrated. If you have associations with the %u2018Tiffy%u2019 this one shouldplease you.Roy WalkerThe Greatest Squadron Of Them All by David Ross, Bruce Blancheand William Simpson. Grub Street; 2003. Two volumes at %u00a330 each.There are many units which might have aspired to being called the%u2018greatest of them all%u2019 but they were all too slow off the mark and No 603(City of Edinburgh) Sqn, RAuxAF has clearly established its copyrightto the title. Declaring itself to be the %u2018definitive%u2019 history of the unit, onecould hardly dispute that claim as this two-volume effort runs to almost800 pages and contains not far short of 600 photographs. In a work ofthis size, it is almost inevitable that there will be some inaccuracies andthis one is no exception. Just to show that that I did actually read bothbooks (and not simply to pick fault) I would cite the following examplesfrom Vol 1: in 1925 James Newall would have been a Wireless Operator,not an Air Signaller; the %u2018E%u2019 in WEM stood for electrical, not electronic;early parachutes were designed by Calthrop (not Colthrop); the annualcamp group photograph on page 30 (with a Wapiti in the background andairmen wearing buttoned-up-to-the-chin tunics) surely dates from earlierthan 1938; Sir Christopher Brand was a South African (not a New