I only started the book 24 hours ago knowing nothing of Jean's story. It really was difficult to put down.
Packed with many fabulous photographs from the family's collection, this book has been a most enjoyable read. Jean clearly was an incredible and very determined man.
I definitely recommend this book to all.
Read the full review [link=https://historybookchat.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-belgian-raf-pilot-who-defied-gestapo.html]here[/link]
History Book Chat
I only started the book 24 hours ago knowing nothing of Jean's story. It really was difficult to put down.
Packed with many fabulous photographs from the family's collection, this book has been a most enjoyable read. Jean clearly was an incredible and very determined man.
I definitely recommend this book to all.
Read the full review [link=https://historybookchat.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-belgian-raf-pilot-who-defied-gestapo.html]here[/link]
History Book Chat
Alan Dawson is a fine historian, who has turned a labour of love -- a family history of wartime adventure and, ultimately, great loss, for which family archives only provide limited help in undoing decades of silent suffering by those who survived their sons and brothers -- into a brilliant piece of investigative story telling. At its heart are the adventures of Roy Lane, a Hurricane pilot whose determination to find excitement and serve his country took him from the skies above the British channel to the Atlantic convoys, to northern Russia and ultimately to the jungles of Burma. Roy Lane kept diaries, and promised his family that he would one day write a book about his war. But the diaries went missing, as he did, and all that the author of this volume, his niece's husband, had to go on were his letters home -- inevitably somewhat bland, to ensure that they were spared the censor's pen and reached home. But the comparative poverty of this material never gets in Dr Dawson's way. Thanks.. Read more
Mark Wormald
Alan Dawson is a fine historian, who has turned a labour of love -- a family history of wartime adventure and, ultimately, great loss, for which family archives only provide limited help in undoing decades of silent suffering by those who survived their sons and brothers -- into a brilliant piece of investigative story telling. At its heart are the adventures of Roy Lane, a Hurricane pilot whose determination to find excitement and serve his country took him from the skies above the British channel to the Atlantic convoys, to northern Russia and ultimately to the jungles of Burma. Roy Lane kept diaries, and promised his family that he would one day write a book about his war. But the diaries went missing, as he did, and all that the author of this volume, his niece's husband, had to go on were his letters home -- inevitably somewhat bland, to ensure that they were spared the censor's pen and reached home. But the comparative poverty of this material never gets in Dr Dawson's way. Thanks.. Read more
Mark Wormald
"In summary, this is a well-produced book with good illustrations for those wanting to get a feel for what life has been like as an armourer since the 1950s..."
The Aviation Historian - Issue 50
"In summary, this is a well-produced book with good illustrations for those wanting to get a feel for what life has been like as an armourer since the 1950s..."
The Aviation Historian - Issue 50
"Clearly coming from a place of passion, this faithfully records the service of this regiment on every battlefront and distinction and explains why it earned its promotion to a permanent part of the RAF."
Classic Military Vehicle Magazine
"Clearly coming from a place of passion, this faithfully records the service of this regiment on every battlefront and distinction and explains why it earned its promotion to a permanent part of the RAF."
Classic Military Vehicle Magazine
"It is one of the very few accounts to have been written by one of ‘the many’ without whom ‘The Few’ could not have succeeded. The author joined up in late 1941 and was trained as an armourer, initially serving at a gunnery school. However, shortly before D-Day he joined a ‘Free French’ Spitfire squadron with which he served until the end of the war. The second half of this highly readable account is in effect a detailed history of the Free French Spitfire Wing during the last year of the war. That in itself is hugely welcome, but even more so is the description of the itinerant life of a 2nd Tactical Air Force fighter unit in the months after D-Day and the often-miserable conditions endured by the hardworking and ever faithful groundcrew. No less valuable is the earlier description of life for a working-class family in London during the inter-war years. A peach of a book that was unputdownable."
Andrew Thomas - Author and Historian
"It is one of the very few accounts to have been written by one of ‘the many’ without whom ‘The Few’ could not have succeeded. The author joined up in late 1941 and was trained as an armourer, initially serving at a gunnery school. However, shortly before D-Day he joined a ‘Free French’ Spitfire squadron with which he served until the end of the war. The second half of this highly readable account is in effect a detailed history of the Free French Spitfire Wing during the last year of the war. That in itself is hugely welcome, but even more so is the description of the itinerant life of a 2nd Tactical Air Force fighter unit in the months after D-Day and the often-miserable conditions endured by the hardworking and ever faithful groundcrew. No less valuable is the earlier description of life for a working-class family in London during the inter-war years. A peach of a book that was unputdownable."
Andrew Thomas - Author and Historian
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On Laughter-Silvered Wings
This is the thoroughly researched account of the life and times of a South African WW2 pilot, the author's father, Ted. It is highly personal, drawing on family history and changing lifestyles as the central figure fights his way through a series of experiences, flying coastal strike missions in the Mediterranean and North Africa, then in the Far East… Read more...
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Lifeline in Helmand: RAF Front-Line Air Supply in Afghanistan
Lifeline in Helmand tells the story of the Royal Air Force tactical transport force operating in one of the most dangerous regions in the Afghanistan campaign – Helmand province. The Chinook helicopters of 1310 Flight fly heavy-lift and trooping missions to remote Forward Operating Bases and in direct support of Deliberate Ground Operations. They… Read more...
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Target Leipzig
Seventy-nine heavy bombers failed to return from the catastrophic raid on the industrial city of Leipzig on the night of 19/29 February 1944. Some 420 aircrew were killed and a further 131 became prisoners of war. It was at that time by far the RAF's most costly raid of World War II. The town was attacked in an attempt to destroy the Messerschmitt… Read more...
On 10 July 2018, exactly 100 years and 100 days after the formation of the world’s first independent air force, 103 aircraft of twenty-four types from twenty-five squadrons flew over London in the largest formation of military aircraft seen over the capital of the UK in nearly thirty years. Involving over 250 aircrew and operating out of fourteen… Read more...
The events of 1942 marked a pivotal year in the history of British air power. For more than two decades the theory that long-range bombing could win wars had dominated British defence policy. The vast majority of warplanes ordered for the RAF were designed either to bomb enemy cities or stop the enemy from bombing British cites. Conventional armies… Read more...
One moment the sky would be full of aircraft wheeling and positioning for the best shot at the enemy; a sky full of danger and menace. The next instant there would just be a clear blue empty sky with the sun shining down on a calm and beautiful landscape. Such was the phenomenon experienced by pilots who fought in the key battles of France and Britain… Read more...
Prior to World War Two, Wing Commander Guy Gibson joined the Royal Air Force. In 1944, he wrote down his experience of serving in the RAF. Aged just 25, Gibson had completed two full tours, each of 30 operations, with Bomber Command, and had led the now-famous Dam Busters raid against the dams of the Ruhr Valley in May 1943. He died aged 26 in 1944,… Read more...
We Seek the Highest has been the motto of the thousands of Officer Cadets who, over ten decades, have passed through the rigorous training regime at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, Lincolnshire. The words embody the College ethos: to strive to reach the tough standards demanded by the RAF, in the air and on the ground. This book tells the 100-year… Read more...
Lifeline in Helmand: RAF Front-Line Air Supply in Afghanistan
Lifeline in Helmand tells the story of the Royal Air Force tactical transport force operating in one of the most dangerous regions in the Afghanistan campaign – Helmand province. The Chinook helicopters of 1310 Flight fly heavy-lift and trooping missions to remote Forward Operating Bases and in direct support of Deliberate Ground Operations. They… Read more...
