A very good military read
I’m not sure a very ‘good’ read is entirely appropriate, however….
A Noble Anger. - David Hill
A painful assessment of the continuing corporate failings which led to the tragic death of Cpl Jon Baylis.
Not for the faint hearted.
A Noble Anger. - David Hill
A painful assessment of the continuing corporate failings which led to the tragic death of Cpl Jon Baylis.
Not for the faint hearted.
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I’m not sure a very ‘good’ read is entirely appropriate, however….
A Noble Anger. - David Hill
A painful assessment of the continuing corporate failings which led to the tragic death of Cpl Jon Baylis.
Not for the faint hearted.
A Noble Anger. - David Hill
A painful assessment of the continuing corporate failings which led to the tragic death of Cpl Jon Baylis.
Not for the faint hearted.
The bottom line? You get as much Flight Safety as you are prepared to pay for and the RAF has clearly run out of money....................
Just finished Typhoon by Mike Sutton.
Could hardly put it down - Really interesting and no ego trips from someone who achieved a lot.
Just got a copy of Death of Hero which already looks like another good recommendation.
Could hardly put it down - Really interesting and no ego trips from someone who achieved a lot.
Just got a copy of Death of Hero which already looks like another good recommendation.
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I've started Dave Montenegro's Red Arrows book. It starts off fairly well but I've got more annoyed as I go on. It's billed on the cover as "The Official Story of Britain's Iconic Display Team" and it shows that MoD PR are directing it and not letting a serving officer give his view. (Presumably that was less of an issue with Mike Sutton's book)
The team make up is repeatedly described as Enid and the rear section. All mention of Gypo has been wiped out - why, it relates to an early members nickname not those who recently tarmaced Cranwell's melted hardstanding.
Reference to Red 1 continually quotes "he or she" despite never having had a female in that position and won't for at least another 7 years based on how the process is described.
The final nail that almost made me throw it across the room is in describing Sean Cunningham's accident and stating it was MBA's failure to pass on information about tightening a nut and bolt which they finally admitted in 2018.
As a PR exercise it really highlights why David Hill's book is a far better read.
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Originally Posted by [email protected]
Just read it - heads should roll in MoD - another preventable death in service with a Service Inquiry and a Coroners Inquest failing to point the blame where it actually lies. (yes I know neither is there to apportion blame but when so much evidence is covered up or excluded, someone should be brought to account)
The bottom line? You get as much Flight Safety as you are prepared to pay for and the RAF has clearly run out of money....................
The bottom line? You get as much Flight Safety as you are prepared to pay for and the RAF has clearly run out of money....................
We have a classic chicken and egg situation here. The reform needed can only come about if UK Military Air Regulation and Accident Investigation are made independent of the MOD and of each other, but as long as the MOD controls them the cover-up will continue. It needs leadership to break that log jam and make reform possible. Meanwhile the canker that killed Jon Bayliss will go on killing. Perhaps even more alarmingly it is infecting every fleet, new and old, for lack of the professional TLC that airworthiness requires. One day the RAF and FAA will again have to confront another Air Power for Supremacy of the Sky. Unless reform is enabled they will do so with one arm tied behind their back. If that all sounds rather hysterical then read David Hill's books and decide for yourself. I commend them all, the latest being A Noble Anger, and can be found in Kindle or Paperback versions down a South American river a mere click away.
Last edited by Chugalug2; 12th Aug 2022 at 22:41.
Death of a Hero is a cracking read.......my neighbour came across R.N. several times whilst he was serving in N.I. Fascinating!!
I enjoyed Typhoon but two parts baffled me. When taxying out for the type's combat debut, the author suddenly realises the map of the target hasn't been loaded. Would you not check that before starting the engines? Also, when one of the Tornadoes goes tech and the crew taxi back for the spare, wasn't that the perfect moment to taxi back and load the maps? Instead, he sits there at idle for 20 minutes, burning into his reserve fuel. At the very least, why not simply turn the engines off until the spare Tornado appears? NOTE this is not a criticism, there may be perfectly valid answers and I just don't know them.
TYPHOON. Mike Sutton
I just finished TYPHOON by Mike Sutton.
Spoiler alert : By a country mile it is the best aviation book of the year and will be acclaimed as one of the best pilot autobiographical works of all time.
Don’t take my word for it, go buy a copy, read it and learn what really makes a ground attack fighter pilot tick. It is brilliant, cleverly written and expertly edited. Enjoy…
Spoiler alert : By a country mile it is the best aviation book of the year and will be acclaimed as one of the best pilot autobiographical works of all time.
Don’t take my word for it, go buy a copy, read it and learn what really makes a ground attack fighter pilot tick. It is brilliant, cleverly written and expertly edited. Enjoy…
I just finished TYPHOON by Mike Sutton.
Spoiler alert : By a country mile it is the best aviation book of the year and will be acclaimed as one of the best pilot autobiographical works of all time.
Don’t take my word for it, go buy a copy, read it and learn what really makes a ground attack fighter pilot tick. It is brilliant, cleverly written and expertly edited. Enjoy…
Spoiler alert : By a country mile it is the best aviation book of the year and will be acclaimed as one of the best pilot autobiographical works of all time.
Don’t take my word for it, go buy a copy, read it and learn what really makes a ground attack fighter pilot tick. It is brilliant, cleverly written and expertly edited. Enjoy…
Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield.
The true story of a Long Range Dessert Group patrol whose aim was to find and kill Rommel in the North African wastelands. Amazing story of the most incredible hardships overcome and vicious battles fought before they (spoiler alert!) actually catch up with him. The meeting is not quite what any of the participants anticipated!
Wonderfully written by a man who became a literary agent after the war, it paints the picture of the danger and chaos experienced by these men in vivid detail. Also depicted is the fierce loyalty forged between men by violent action. A real page-turner with more than a whiff of cordite to make the eyes smart.
Mog
The true story of a Long Range Dessert Group patrol whose aim was to find and kill Rommel in the North African wastelands. Amazing story of the most incredible hardships overcome and vicious battles fought before they (spoiler alert!) actually catch up with him. The meeting is not quite what any of the participants anticipated!
Wonderfully written by a man who became a literary agent after the war, it paints the picture of the danger and chaos experienced by these men in vivid detail. Also depicted is the fierce loyalty forged between men by violent action. A real page-turner with more than a whiff of cordite to make the eyes smart.
Mog
Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield.
The true story of a Long Range Dessert Group patrol whose aim was to find and kill Rommel in the North African wastelands. Amazing story of the most incredible hardships overcome and vicious battles fought before they (spoiler alert!) actually catch up with him. The meeting is not quite what any of the participants anticipated!
Mog
The true story of a Long Range Dessert Group patrol whose aim was to find and kill Rommel in the North African wastelands. Amazing story of the most incredible hardships overcome and vicious battles fought before they (spoiler alert!) actually catch up with him. The meeting is not quite what any of the participants anticipated!
Mog
For anybody interested in the LRDG/desert warfare (although Dessert sounds tastier
) I would also recommend...Lost in Libya – In Search of the Long Range Desert Group (2009)
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/36199
A very nicely made docu by Brendan O'Carroll about the hunt for 3 LRDG Chevvy Trucks abandoned at Gebel Sherif in Libya (1941),including commentary from some NZ LRDG vets and some unique 8mm movie footage of the LRDG at work by 'Wink' Adams (LRDG Trooper)
Link to trailer above - it is available to download from vimeo for a small fee ,it is HD quality and quite a large filesize (11.9 gigs) - took approx an hour to download onto my decrepit old PC
HMS Rutland
HMS Rutland is a recently published book that manages to combine 19th and 21st century naval action in a very enjoyable action yarn. Very readable with an intriguing storyline which even manages to include some naval aviation activity.
Last edited by bspatz; 8th Sep 2023 at 13:33.
I've recently finished reading SAS: Rogue Heroes by Ben MacIntyre. It's the authorised history from the SAS archives. Excellent reading.
Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war but the nature of combat itself. He faced no little resistance from those who found his tactics ungentlemanly or beyond the pale, but in the SAS' remarkable exploits facing the Nazis in Africa and then on the continent can be found the seeds of nearly all special forces units that would follow.
Bringing his keen eye for psychological detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to SAS archives to shine a light inside a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy. The result is not just a tremendous war story but a fascinating group portrait of men of whom history and country asked the most.
Britain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel.
Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war but the nature of combat itself. He faced no little resistance from those who found his tactics ungentlemanly or beyond the pale, but in the SAS' remarkable exploits facing the Nazis in Africa and then on the continent can be found the seeds of nearly all special forces units that would follow.
Bringing his keen eye for psychological detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to SAS archives to shine a light inside a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy. The result is not just a tremendous war story but a fascinating group portrait of men of whom history and country asked the most.
Yes, old man. I think it was mentioned on another thread that his name has been removed from the book's cover, which is still available. I wonder if MOD asked for that? Not sure how that works. But for a book written in 2021/22 I can't believe anyone would really believe what it says about the Sean Cunningham accident, which leads me to believe the content was strictly controlled or dictated by MOD. As I said, if you want the truth read "Red 5" or any of Mr Hill's books. I recently re-read his first one "Their Greatest Disgrace" as the Kindle version has been republished, this time with the complete main submission to the Mull of Kintyre Review. It left me in no doubt that the Review had nowhere else to go.
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Please indulge me.
I lurk on this thread [whilst shooting my mouth off on others] and have followed up a good few good references.
WARNING Potential thread drift.
Which of us writes books, in addition to reading? And on what subjects?
I expect a note from the Mods in the near future of course.
I lurk on this thread [whilst shooting my mouth off on others] and have followed up a good few good references.
WARNING Potential thread drift.
Which of us writes books, in addition to reading? And on what subjects?
I expect a note from the Mods in the near future of course.
Thoroughly enjoyed "Typhoon" by Mike Sutton and after reading the considerable numbers of positive reviews here have just ordered John Nichol's "Eject! Eject!".
PS - although non-Mil, also ordered "Concorde" by Mike Bannister (former Concorde Chief Test Pilot). To my mind it is stillone of the most beautiful man-made objects ever created.
PS - although non-Mil, also ordered "Concorde" by Mike Bannister (former Concorde Chief Test Pilot). To my mind it is still
In the days when students or schoolkids had summer jobs, I worked on Concorde in the wind tunnels at a company called ARA at Bedford. We ran several different trails on models in the supersonic and transonic tunnels and yes I have to agree with you, she was a work of art as well as being well ahead of her time. I also reckon you have not seen engineering until you have seen Rolls Royce engineering, The models of the intakes we put through the supersonic tunnel, in an effort to get the variable geometry and the pattern of shock waves within the intake right, were mind blowing in their precision.