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A very good military read

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A very good military read

Old 12th May 2017, 17:14
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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

Last edited by Ddraig Goch; 12th May 2017 at 17:36.
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Old 25th May 2017, 07:09
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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
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Old 9th Jun 2017, 09:54
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"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."
Wouldn't argue with a word of that. Great read.
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Old 7th Sep 2017, 14:53
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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...
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Old 7th Sep 2017, 15:56
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"Picking up the brass" and "Map of Africa" are good time fillers that raised many smiles.

Link
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Old 20th Sep 2017, 03:08
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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.
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Old 20th Sep 2017, 09:38
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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.
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Old 20th Sep 2017, 18:27
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Martin - I have that too - fascinating
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Old 20th Sep 2017, 20:47
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Originally Posted by Martin the Martian
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.
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Old 6th Nov 2017, 09:34
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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.
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Old 6th Nov 2017, 11:52
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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.
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Old 6th Nov 2017, 19:29
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Fighter!: The Story of Air Combat is now free on Kindle for a limited time.
Thanks for that.
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Old 6th Nov 2017, 22:09
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Originally Posted by Slow Biker
Fate is the Hunter, no doubt mentioned before; today in The Works for a bargain £3.
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.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 18:01
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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.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 19:10
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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
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Old 10th Nov 2017, 17:45
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Just finished rereading this book....Cecil Lewis had a way with a word!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ttarius_Rising
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Old 10th Nov 2017, 20:08
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"Shadows - Airlift & Airwar in Biafra & Nigeria 1967-70" by Michael I. Draper

Some of the aviation exploits were almost unbelievable !

NEO
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Old 11th Nov 2017, 03:08
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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!
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Old 11th Nov 2017, 21:04
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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?
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Old 11th Nov 2017, 21:16
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Originally Posted by albatross
Just finished rereading this book....Cecil Lewis had a way with a word!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ttarius_Rising
I had the great privilege of knowing Cecil as a friend and he was certainly a larger than life character. Not only was he an acoplished fighter pilot and fantastic wordsmith, he had huge charisma. At the age of 90, his wife found him trying to have carnal knowledge of the chamber-maid!

Cecil Lewis - fighter pilot, poet, author and lover of women. What a man!

Mog
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