A very good military read
Tony Cunnane autobiography including his time in the 50's and onwards RAF. A really good read and free. Download from his web site as a .mobi for Kindle :
Tony Cunnane's Autobiography
Tony Cunnane's Autobiography
Last edited by Ddraig Goch; 12th May 2017 at 18:36.
Just finished this one, and very good it was. Flew everything from F6F Hellcat to the SR71 and a lot more interesting stuff in between! Here is the link to a free pdf from the NASA website:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/...n_kerosene.pdf
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/...n_kerosene.pdf
"The Hunters" by James Salter
"Based on Salter's experience as an American fighter pilot flying F86s during the Korean War, the book captures the peculiar nature of aerial combat in the jet age. Salter was celebrated for the spare elegance of his prose, and his descriptions of flight here are among the best ever written. But the real story concerns the relationships between ambitious pilots who compete to prove themselves in deadly single combat against the Chinese MiGs that rise to challenge them."
Kisses from Nimbus
This should be of interest to Ppruners.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kisses-Nimb.../dp/1911525778
Pete started off as an AAC pilot, was posted to Hereford on 8 Flight, then unusually did selection to become a fully badged trooper and sabre squadron member. In the Falklands war he was the pilot of the "borrowed" recce Huey on the hitherto undisclosed operation to test Rio Gallegos defences in preparation for a possible attack from Chile. He then went on to work for UKN in SIS. It does seem his book launch is going ahead, despite some opposition from GLD lawyers...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kisses-Nimb.../dp/1911525778
Pete started off as an AAC pilot, was posted to Hereford on 8 Flight, then unusually did selection to become a fully badged trooper and sabre squadron member. In the Falklands war he was the pilot of the "borrowed" recce Huey on the hitherto undisclosed operation to test Rio Gallegos defences in preparation for a possible attack from Chile. He then went on to work for UKN in SIS. It does seem his book launch is going ahead, despite some opposition from GLD lawyers...
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"Manis Not Lost" Group Captain "Dickie" Richardson. A pilot who set up navigation in the RAF sounds almost heretical. A good read for conditions before WW2. I have often seen some of the names mentioned here.
Currently reading Looking Down the Corridors: Allied Aerial Espionage over East Germany and Berlin, 1945-1990 by Kevin Wright and Peter Jefferies. I am sure some regulars here are far more familiar with the subject than I am, but I am finding it fascinating.
Either books on Brixmis by Tony Geraghty and Steve Gibson are well worth a read, fascinating things that were got up to in East Germany during the Cold War.
Fighter!: The Story of Air Combat is now free on Kindle for a limited time.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighter-Sto.../?tag=ho01f-21
No idea if it's any good but the cover carries a fabulous recommendation, "Masterly account - Grimsby Evening Telegraph"
If it's good enough for the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, it's good enough for me.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighter-Sto.../?tag=ho01f-21
No idea if it's any good but the cover carries a fabulous recommendation, "Masterly account - Grimsby Evening Telegraph"
If it's good enough for the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, it's good enough for me.
Just caught up with Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer: An RAF Officer's Memoir of the Battle of France 1940 by Alastair Panton and Victoria Panton Bacon. Another superb read.
Just bought it and devoured it: gobsmacking, and hugely educating for a Met. man. A very interesting writing style, quite "different", as is another "different" classic, Edmund Blunden's Undertones of War.
Most Secret War
Masterly account of the radar war 39/45 and much more. Recently re-issued Professor RV Jones RAF's head of scientific intelligenge from 1938 onwards Penquin ISBN 978-0-141-04282-4
He has little time for Robert Watson-Watt
Original pub date 1978 the updated version expands on some chapters of the previous work especially the origins of the Oslo Report, read and be amazed.
He has little time for Robert Watson-Watt
Original pub date 1978 the updated version expands on some chapters of the previous work especially the origins of the Oslo Report, read and be amazed.
If you have ever had the dubious fortune to be part of the military procurement process in the 20th century, then 'The Free Enterprise Patriot', by John Rickey may amuse you. In the form of correspondence between the purchasing arm of the Colonial Army and the owner of a blacksmith's shop who wished to supply them with cannon, the correspondence is in the style you will most likely recognise.
Originally published in the early 1960s as a serial in the journal, 'Research and Development', and later as a book, it can now be read online. My personal favourite is when some stones accidentally fell in the gun as it was being bored...
The Free Enterprise Patriot - Introduction
Originally published in the early 1960s as a serial in the journal, 'Research and Development', and later as a book, it can now be read online. My personal favourite is when some stones accidentally fell in the gun as it was being bored...
The Free Enterprise Patriot - Introduction
Nigerian In Law
"Shadows - Airlift & Airwar in Biafra & Nigeria 1967-70" by Michael I. Draper
Some of the aviation exploits were almost unbelievable !
NEO
Some of the aviation exploits were almost unbelievable !
NEO
Apologies to the Mods. 'A very good military read' I took in the broader sense, not realizing this was a dedicated aviation thread. Samurai military warfare may have been a very good read, but it fell outside the remit here!
I might have missed them, or just looking in the wrong place, but why do we not see as many books written by UK Air commanders in the same way we get the various memoires and recollections of army types?
I was in Town today and noticed FM Bramhall's recollections were out. All the way through the Joint Ops X Planning Course they talked about Gen Richards and suggested his bio was worth reading amongst others which are strewn across bookshops. But other than Tedder's Quietly in Command I'm not aware of many others - we do lots of interesting reads, but many are lower levels of command. Are there any hidden away I may have missed? Surely they can't think they wouldn't be of interest?
I was in Town today and noticed FM Bramhall's recollections were out. All the way through the Joint Ops X Planning Course they talked about Gen Richards and suggested his bio was worth reading amongst others which are strewn across bookshops. But other than Tedder's Quietly in Command I'm not aware of many others - we do lots of interesting reads, but many are lower levels of command. Are there any hidden away I may have missed? Surely they can't think they wouldn't be of interest?
Just finished rereading this book....Cecil Lewis had a way with a word!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ttarius_Rising
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ttarius_Rising
Cecil Lewis - fighter pilot, poet, author and lover of women. What a man!
Mog
