A new book in my library.

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I have two to report on.
The first I found in the local library catalogue and thought that would be worth reading so ordered it. The blurb said it was by a ww2 RAF bomber gunner. It is poetry not a history and I am glad I did not buy it. I read one poem and returned it to the library. I should have photographed the poem but from memory it was
Where is your father
Dead
Where is your mother, sister, brother.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
This turned my off instantly. The rest of the poetry may well be excellent but I did not read any of it and in any case I was hoping for more of an insight into being tail end Charlie


The second is the extreme opposite. I was given this book quite a while back and the title did nothing for me so I have only just read it. I strongly recommend it as it covers all the crew and their memories, usually in first person, of WW2 Beaufort torpedo operations. It covers the taboo subjects of Lack of moral fibre (now known as PTSD). This is the only book I have seen that discusses ww2 from the gunners and other "secondary" crew members perspective so is well worth the read. And it does not gloss over other operational perils like being bombed by RAF aircraft while doing a torpedo run on a German ship. It also includes crew modifications to their aircraft to make it more habitable.

This extract relates to the later (Blenheim) Browning turret in the Beaufort Mk II but many of the principles and parts are common to both Beaufort turrets - the earlier turret started with one Vickers gun laying on its side and was later fitted with two, the second upright. This extract is permissible under Australian copyright law.


Tommy was the pilot of the previous Beaufort crew Bill Carroll flew with.
 
I also enjoyed this book - recommended. "Torpedo Leader" by Patrick Gibbs is also an excellent account of Beaufort torpedo ops if your interested.
 
Capt. Vick said:
Not WW2 related, but thought it.might be worth a post.
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That's interesting; I'd like to hear more about it. I was not involved in the recovery effort but was a member of a team that analyzed the debris and made plans (never fully implemented) to collect data on it so to further refine our break-up models. I also collected a bunch of news reports on the debris recovery and videotaped the "Museum" they had in the VAB so the rest of the team could see the storage conditions.

On one visit to the Columbia Debris Museum I noted a radial-engined aircraft cowling. I never figured out what kind of airplane it went on, but I'm sure it had nothing to do with a Space Shuttle. The cowling actually was in pretty good shape.

Fully recording the debris characteristics proved to be prohibitively expensive. If we could have used personnel along the lines of supermarket checkout clerks that should have been much cheaper, but doing it the NASA way was going to take years and cost millions of dollars.
 
Capt. Vick said:
I second the above! Was obsessed with this book when I first got it.
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A little story associated with this book. Before I bought my own copy, I actually saw it on the shelf at a Barnes & Nobles near my house. My immense joy was short lived when I realized someone had put the dust jacket on a book of (no doubt) cheaper, but similar dimensions inorder to get a price break. I was crestfallen. I even brought it to the counter with some vague hope that they would have the actually book somewhere. No such luck. Bummer.
 
MIflyer said:
Probability of surviving a tour on ops for such ship attack missions was 17%. Reference, "The Armed Rovers."
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The examples given are far more detailed and cover the extended intense mental and physical strain these people were under and makes one wonder why so few cracked up. One pilot, I cant remember if he was one who cracked or not, had a badly damaged aircraft with no hydraulics so no way to extend the landing gear plus injured crew plus a torpedo which would not jettison so had no option but to belly land on the torpedo and hope that his understanding of the way the torpedo was fused was correct. The aircraft was repaired.
 
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