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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1125.PDF
FLIGHT, 16 August 1957 215 THE AERONAUTICAL BOOKSHELF "Mission Completed," by Air Chief Marshal Sir Basil Embry.Methuen and Co., Ltd., 36 Essex Street, London, W.C.2. Illustrated. Price 25s. TWO-AND-A-HALF years after the end of the First World War,Basil Embry became a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force. He lived with the Service for the next 35 years, and the prime valueof the book he has now written is as a history of the R.A.F. and as an autobiography. The author clearly had the ability to inspireothers, whether they were members of a hard-pressed squadron or pupils of Bromsgrove School, where Embry was educated andwhere later, as an Old Boy, he went to distribute prizes on speech day. He still has that gift, and his book will transfuse some of thespirit of those days into those too young to remember them, and recall it to those who lived through them. It goes further thanthat; through each chapter runs the story of how the R.A.F. was welded into a Service capable of its epic operations between 1939and 1945. There are details of some of the well-remembered operations—the attack on Amiens prison and the release by bombing of scores of French Resistance prisoners; the destruction of theGestapo headquarters at Copenhagen and Aarhus, and the bomb- ing of V-weapon sites. It is clear that some of these operationswere not quite so brilliantly planned and carried out as we believed at the time, although they were undoubtedly successful. Theattacks on flying-bomb sites were completed with varying degrees of efficiency—the Bostons flown by the R.A.F. needed an averageof 334 tons of bombs to knock out one site; but Mosquitoes used only 40 tons for the same job. Bostons lost two aircraft perdestroyed site; Mosquitoes lost 0.87. Mission Completed brings the conduct of the war to a personallevel. To this extent it is perhaps egocentric, because it relates how Sir Basil saw the war, what senior commanders told himand how he carried out their orders. This may irritate some readers, but they should not let it detract from their interest.Sir Basil was, in his own words, "prematurely retired" from the R.A.F. while he was Commander-in-Chief of the Allied AirForces Central Europe. His stay in that post was stormy, and the later chapters of his book tell of many of the frustrations whichhe met. The last word on the military set-up of NATO has obviously not yet been written. Sir Basil's views on the subjectare invigorating—which does not imply that they may not be a little prejudiced. But his whole book strikes one as being a faith-ful recording of his Service career, and leads one inevitably to think that there is probably a good deal of justification for hiscriticisms of NATO and the out-of-date attitude of some of the national forces in it. A. C. B. "101 Nights," by Ray Ollis. Cassell and Co., Ltd., 37 St.Andrews Hill, London, E.C.4. Price 15s. A MILLENIUM hence, 101 Nights (the number refers to a•'*• squadron in Bomber Command) may be regarded as some- thing of a Canterbury Tale. It records accurately the lives, atmo-sphere and conversation of operational aircrew on a bomber station and in the course of their pilgrimages over enemy territory. Charac-ters in this novel are well cast; these men and women were to be found at most bomber stations during the war. It is doubtful if any one crew nucleus ever ran into so muchtrouble in two tours of operations or thereabouts. But the story does indicate quite correctly that a crew which loses cohesion andgood captaincy (whichever crew position the captain occupies) gets into difficulties.The descriptions of operational flights are colourful and man- age to give a true picture of what went on—though it is question-able whether they can accurately convey the scene to anyone who was not there; these things are beyond imagination. The accountsof flights must certainly excite vivid memories in anyone with some experience of ops.By no means everyone enjoys war novels, whether based on true incidents or not. I for one usually avoid them and all theyrecall, and had no intention of doing more than skim this book. However, having made a start, I found it sufficiently gripping towant to read all of it. Incidentally, it is strange that though the same slang, songsand expressions came up on all operational stations the words and even the point seemed to get altered as they were handed onwithout being committed to paper. It is easy to see how stories from the dim illiterate past of nations become so garbled throughthe generations that only expert historians can now trace them back to a common beginning in fact—and this particular piece ofhistory takes the reader back less than fifteen years. On another point, I personally welcome the use in print ofwords and expressions that are strictly non-drawing-room; blanks, Bowdlerizations and circumlocutions are dishonest and grubby.Men (and women) talked that way; it was part of the atmosphere. All types and many nationalities were mixed together and seldomcan there have been such closeness and interdependence among "strangers." Few were conscious that by other standards theywould have been considered foul-mouthed. Cut out the swear words and some men would be mute, as the book says. No real hero or heroine (except perhaps the Lancaster) emerges,but there is no lack of characters. This is appropriate to the all-too-rapidly changing population and jumbled emotions andrelationships of such a squadron. As the Hitler War—Bomber Command's war—recedes in timeand memory, each new book about it needs to be that much better to succeed—or even to be worthwhile. If this was Mr. Ollis'saim he has achieved it. M. A. S. "Realities of Space Travel," edited by L. J. Carter. Putnamand Co., Ltd., 42 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Illustrated. Price 35s. TTERE Mr. Carter has brought together the most up-to-date-*-•*• (publishable) theories about leaving the earth and getting away into space. Realities of Space Travel is a technical book towhich 16 experts, including A. V. Cleaver, A. E. Slater and K. W. Gatland, have contributed. It is, therefore, a valuable work ofreference for anyone who, idly or seriously, contemplates an excur- sion away from the planet Earth. The material in the book origin-ated as papers presented to the British Interplanetary Society, and it speaks well of the high standard of that Society's work. A. C. B. "Aircraft in Miniature," by W. O. Doylend. Model AeronauticalPress, 38 Clarendon Road, Watford, Herts. Illustrated. Price 12s 6d.AN old hand at solid scale modelling, Mr. Doylend draws on •** long experience and presents the reader with a comprehensiveguide to the art. Methods of making every component of a great variety of models are described at length, backed up by line andphotographic illustrations of specific aircraft in every case. Look for sections on air-brakes, flap-guides, radial engines or WorldWar I tail-booms: you will find them all. There is a particularly helpful chapter on hulls and floats, an aspect of modelling whichdiscourages many. Experts may carp at some of the author's dogmatic statements,e.g., on rigging: ". . . even the finest wire is unsuitable" (he prefers thread); but the beginner is certain to be satisfied.Large photographs on art paper, many depicting the author's own models, give the book a "quality" air. It is perhaps unfor-tunate that the frontispiece illustrates a Hunter model with over- generous wing fillets—which only shows that the last word on thisabsorbing hobby may never be said; but one unhesitatingly admits that Mr. Doylend has come pretty near to it. A. B. OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED Restrictive Trade Practices, by K. C. Johnson-Davies andR. D. Harington. Macdonald and Evans, Ltd., 8 John Street, London, W.C.I. Price 25s. The Slide Rule for Sea and Air Navigation, by J. C. Podmore. Brown, Son and Ferguson, Ltd., 52-58 Darnley Street, Glasgow, S.I. Price 14s. General View of Japanese Military Aircraft in the Pacific War.Compiled by the staff of "Aireview." Kanto-Sha Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. Seven Days to Never, by Pat Frank. Constable and Co., Ltd., 10 Orange Street, London, W.C.2. Price 15s. Escape and Be Secret, by Charles Gibbs-Smith. Heinemann, 99 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Price 15s. Elements of Gasdynamics, by H. W. Liepmann and A. Roshko.Chapman and Hall, 37 Essex Street, London, W.C.2. Price 88s. Proceedings of the Rubber in Engineering Conference. The Natural Rubber Development Board, Market Buildings, Mark Lane, London, E.C.3. The Hunters, by James Salter. William Heinemann, Ltd., 99 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Price 15s. A Space Traveller's Guide to Mars, by I. M. Levitt. VictorGollancz, Ltd., 14 Henrietta Street, London, W.C.2. Price 16s. Management Control in Airframe Subcontracting, by Neil E.Harlan. Harvard Business School. Bailey Bros, and Swinfen, Ltd., 46 St. Giles High Street, London, W.C.2. Price 32s. Subcontracting Policy in the Airiram>> Industry, by John S.Day. Harvard Business School. Bailey Bros, and Swinfen, Ltd., 46 St. Giles High Street, London, W.C.2. Price 32s.
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