The most recent edition of Sabretache. The Journal and Proceedings of the Military Historical Society of Australia has been published (Vol LIV No 2, June 2013). It includes my review of
Peter Rees: Lancaster Men. The Aussie Heroes of Bomber Command (Allen & Unwin, April 2013, Card covers trade paperback size 424pp b&w plates. ISBN: 97817417520706)
I enjoyed the book and think it is a sensitive and valuable addition to Australia's Bomber Command experiences.
Here's the review...
I first met Peter Rees in September 2010 at a book
launch. He was accompanied by Ted Pickerd who, Peter told me, had served with
Bomber Command. I was overawed as I spoke to Ted briefly about his experiences
and pleased when Peter explained that Ted would feature in the account of
Australians in Bomber Command that he was working on. Peter and I subsequently
enjoyed sporadic email contact and he kept me posted on the progress of his
work. Last year, I had the pleasure of reading and commenting on an early
draft. If I was overawed by Ted’s experiences in our brief chat, I was
overwhelmed when reading about them, as well as those of his Bomber Command
compatriots, in Lancaster Men. The Aussie Heroes of Bomber Command.
In this fine account, Peter follows the general course
of the war, and includes the full gamut of wartime episodes: recruitment and
training, crewing up, combat, flak and attack, bailing out, capture, injuries, death
and return. The Pathfinders, Dambusters and Great Escapers are included. Even Q
for Queenie’s harbour bridge stunt gets a mention. He discusses the bombing of
Dresden, long considered the darkest moment of the bombing campaign, and places
it in a new perspective. He includes historical commentary where appropriate,
but the personal stories, such as those of Rollo Kingsford-Smith, Jack
Davenport, Noel Eliot, Jim Rowland, Jack Mitchell, Mickey Martin, Alick
Roberts, Blue Connelly, and Ted Pickerd, are the heart of his book.
As he demonstrated in The
Other Anzacs: Nurses at War, 1914–1918 and Desert Boys. Australians at War from Beersheba to Tobruk and El Alamein,
Peter is a natural story teller. When
drawing together a large collection of stories, there is the risk that the
multitude of individuals will be lost to the reader. Not here, or indeed in
Peter’s other works. He skilfully inks in the pen portraits so the reader can
instantly identify each man; he seamlessly blends their words into a
moving and dramatic narrative.
The concept of duty is almost alien to us these days
and yet Peter Rees’s 20-year-old (or thereabouts) heroes were firmly committed
to participating in a far away war. The remarkable thing about this dedication
is that, from almost the first day of training, through to their inclusion in
1000 aircraft bomber raids, powering through flak, searchlights, enemy fighters
and even ‘friendly’ attack from the machines above them in the bomber stream,
it is made clear that they are expendable. Somehow, those brave men accepted
that expendability and the potential inevitability of a death which, other than
in the privacy of their own thoughts and diaries, was treated blithely. Someone
went for a Burton, someone had gone west, and in the case of Noel Eliot’s
brother: ‘All killed—funeral at one-thirty this afternoon!’ It indeed says much
about these men that, despite this prevailing attitude, they continued to climb
into their mighty machines, even those like Alf Read who saw a Lancaster rear
gunner hosed out of his turret. In their case, Aussie Hero is not a false
accolade.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith reappears a number of times and,
in a sense, becomes a key ‘commentator’ of the Bomber Command experience as we
share his beliefs, thoughts, practices, grief at the loss of a friend, and the
searing ignominy of ‘boomeranging’ from a bombing op when the electrics failed
in the rear turret. He would have gone on if the turret itself or guns had
failed but with the outside temperature below –40 degrees Celsius, the rear
gunner was prone to frostbite and, within a few hours his efficiency would be
suspect. The entire crew would be at risk if he could not defend them from
attack. It was the right decision, but, as a leader who would grill any other
pilot who made a similar decision, Rollo felt ashamed. ‘It took me a week
before I could safely lift my head again’.
One of the strongest threads is that of comradeship,
evident from the first moments of the crewing up process where men who had
little in common created an instant bond. They effortless worked as a team
during the long hours of each bombing operation, adhered to rigid flight
discipline in the air, and enjoyed lighter moments in the mess. So strong was
the bond that some men extended their own tour so they could fly one more time
with their crew. Sometimes, it was literally their last flight. There was
striking recognition of the dangers a Jewish crew member would face. When Eric
Rosenfeld asked the RAF what he should do if captured by the Germans, he was
told to tell them he was a British officer and a gentleman. It wasn’t good
enough for Eric’s skipper, Noel Sanders. With typical Australian ingenuity, he organised
a set of fake, Anglicised dog tags for his navigator to wear on ops. Just in
case.
At 135,000 words Lancaster
Men is perhaps a little longer than readers are used to these days but
there is no sense that this has been overextended or padded. It has a well
constructed, pacey narrative that never sags. The text is supported by a good
selection of photos, many supplied by the families of Peter Rees’s key
subjects, two decent maps, a useful index, notes and bibliography, and a great
cover. There is only one flaw, to my mind. Peter’s original title
was All the Fine Young Men. That was
rejected by Allen & Unwin, who decided it should be called Lancaster Men. Catchier title perhaps,
but Peter’s fine men also flew Hampdens, Whitleys, Stirlings, Manchesters and
Wellingtons. In excluding those who flew other aircraft from the title, the
marketers have somehow diminished their experience and resulted in at least one
non-sale: one friend of a Stirling pilot refused to buy the book because he
thought it only covered Lancaster aircrew.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith makes a telling point when he
refers to the monotony of ops: dangerous they may be, but they are all the
same. Go out, dodge flak, AA and defenders, drop the bombs and hope you get
home again. Perhaps that is why, in the canon of aviation literature, there are
relatively few bomber command memoirs and biographies, when compared with the
constant action, fire-at-the-whites-of-their-eyes Fighter Command tales. In
bringing together a multitude of smaller stories in this first class work,
Peter Rees not only highlights the key experiences of the individuals, he
illuminates the entire Australian experience in Bomber Command. This is a fine
tribute. Highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment