Tuesday 24 June 2014

Slash and Burn

I am currently editing a manuscript on Lores Bonney, an Australian pilot of the 1930s. I am a tad over the word limit so I am seriously slashing and burning everything that does not specifically relate to Lores. Here is one little segment I am quite fond of . I hate to consign it to the literary equivalent of the cutting room floor so (hopefully) enjoy.    


(Lores Bonney and Charles Kingsford Smith at Archerfield aerodrome, August 1932)
‘Sensation at Archerfield’
Lores Bonney was at Archerfield overseeing My Little Ship’s final maintenance, which was been carried out by two Qantas ground engineers, on 13 August 1932, two days before her departure on her round Australia flight. She checked her tool box, tested the spare cylinder head and replenished the liquid in the fire extinguisher. This was a task long overdue: it had not been changed since Flight Lieutenant Hill (from whom she had purchased her Gipsy Moth, My Little Ship, filled it before he left England. The magnetic compass, which was oriented to the earth’s magnetic field, and also influenced by any metal objects stowed on board, was ‘swung’ to determine and record any variations. It had to be checked in this way every time a new metal object was brought on board, such as the spare cylinder head or any other iron or steel items which might be stashed in a well-stocked tool kit. Swinging the compass involved first positioning the aircraft away from excess magnetic interference, like metal structure buildings and machinery, then pointing the aircraft at each of the main compass points while still on the ground. Standing some distance from the aircraft, a mechanic orientated a landing compass along a centre line from each compass point and called out the reading to the person sitting in the aircraft. He or she would note the discrepancy on a ‘compass card’. Thus, during flights, Lores would be able to check her bearings against the compass deviation card and allow for any degrees of difference.

Lores also helped repair a broken windscreen. She did not reveal how it had been damaged but it is possible it was one of the casualties in a madcap escapade, where ‘Famous Pilot Figures in Chase’, that had caused a ‘Sensation at Archerfield’ the day before.[iii] According to the Brisbane Courier, ‘a powerful roadster motor car, driven at breakneck speed ... heralded a melodrama that for thrills and incidents outshone any motion picture’. The Chrysler Imperial, which had been brazenly stolen from the showrooms at Ward Motors Ltd, careered into the aerodrome. Recently knighted Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was based at Archerfield during the Brisbane leg of his barnstorming tour of Queensland (which coincided with Exhibition Week).[iv] He was standing near Southern Cross, the Fokker F.V11b/3 trimotor monoplane in which he Charles Ulm and Americans Jim Warner and Harry Lyon had made their 1928 trans-Pacific flight. Smithy saw the Chrysler racing towards him and, realising the driver intended to damage his aircraft, grabbed from the cabin the two rifles he always carried with him. He handed one to his mechanic and the two of them took up armed defence of the Fokker. The driver headed straight for them but, then apparently deterred by the Smithy’s impromptu armed guard, swerved. The roadster crashed into the tail of the Southern Cross Midget, which had been acting as tender to the Southern Cross during the flying circus’s Queensland tour, then slammed into the tail of a Gipsy Moth. But that didn’t stop it.

It was mayhem. Smithy later commented that he had ‘never seen the ‘drome clear so quickly’.[v] As the Chrysler raced along the tarmac, W.E. Gardner, the Queensland Aero Club’s chief instructor, grabbed a control stick from one of the club’s Moths and hurled it at the driver. He swerved, narrowly missing five of the club’s Moths and continued towards the club house, through its fence and onto the western boundary fence, through a neighbouring property and another fence before hightailing it down the Ipswich Road to Oxley.

Meanwhile, Smithy, Charles Matheson (who had taught Lores to fly) and some other onlookers had commandeered an innocent bystander and his car to set out in hot pursuit. (It all seemed so Keystone Cops.) Still with rifle in hand, Smith took aim and fired at the fleeing roadster which rolled to a stop. The driver was pulled from the car with Smith’s rifle firmly in his back. Elder was later charged as a person suspected of being of unsound mind.[vi] Excitement over, Smithy resumed his ‘short air tours in the famous Southern Cross[vii] and Lores continued her preparations.




 
[iii] The Brisbane Courier, 13 August 1932
[iv] The Brisbane Courier, 2 August 1932; Mackersey, Smithy. The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Little, Brown and Company, London, 1998, p. 272–274
[v] The Brisbane Courier, 13 August 1932
[vi] The Brisbane Courier, 13 August 1932
[vii] Advertisement, The Brisbane Courier, 6 August 1932

Sunday 8 June 2014

Australia's Few and the Battle of Britain

I am thrilled to announce that, after six years of research and writing, Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain will be released on 1 September 2014. The release date is significant: it is just before the 74th commemoration of the Battle of Britain.

 
The publishers are NewSouth Publishing, a division of the University of New South Wales. Many books these days appear in paperback but Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain is a fine hard cover, with a magnificent dust wrapper, over 30 photos, two maps, and 432 pages. As befits a history book, it includes index, endnotes and bibliography.

 
I am so proud of Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain. Let me tell you a little about it.
 The Battle of Britain is one of the most significant battles of the war, and until now, the role of the Australian ‘Few’ has received little attention. I give a personal account of eight Australian participants, drawing heavily on primary source material (much of it from family archives). I follow these young men from childhood, through their education, training, personal relationships and flying careers, to death in combat (in the case of seven of the eight men), and beyond that to commemoration.
 This is not a one chapter per pilot book. Their stories are woven into the general Battle narrative and chronology.

 
Eight Australian Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of the Battle of Britain. Only one survived. Who were these brave men, who contributed to victory in what became known as a turning point of the war:
 ·               Jack Kennedy (238 Squadron)—Sydney born and bred; Spitfire and Hurricane pilot, the first Australian to die in the Battle.
 
·               Stuart Walch (238 Squadron)—Hobart born and bred; Hurricane pilot, known as the father of his squadron.
 
 ·               Dick Glyde DFC (87 Squadron)—Perth born and bred; Australia’s first internee of the war; Hurricane pilot who flew in the Battle of France and died on Eagle Day.
 
 
·               Ken Holland (152 Squadron)—Sydney born and bred; Spitfire pilot and the youngest Australian to die.
 
·               Pat Hughes DFC (234 Squadron)—Monaro born and bred, memorialised in Cooma and Kiama, raised to adulthood in Sydney; Spitfire pilot and Australia’s highest scoring Battle ace who died defending London on the first day of the Blitz.
 
 
·               Bill Millington DFC (79 and 249 squadrons)—English born but Adelaide raised; Hurricane pilot and exemplar of chivalry who avoided crashing into a village; died on the last day of fighting.
 
 ·               John Crossman (32 and 46 squadrons)—Queensland-born and Newcastle raised; Hurricane pilot who was determined to fly at all cost.
 
 ·               Desmond Sheen DFC and Bar (72 Squadron)—Sydney-born and Canberra raised; Spitfire pilot and first Australian to engage the enemy in combat. Baled out twice, and survived.
 
   Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain also tells the story of the women who loved these young men:
 ·      Feisty Kay Hughes who met her match in Pat Hughes and grieved a lifetime at his loss.
·      Christine Jourd, with whom Jack Kennedy fell in love, almost at first sight.
 
 
·      Seina Haydon, who agreed to marry Ken Holland for perhaps the wrong reasons but kept his photo close all her life.
 
 ·      Patricia Foley, who fell in love with John Crossman at 16 and never got over his death.
 
·      ·     Rusty Sheen, the only partner of the ‘eight’ to enjoy a lifelong marriage with her fighter pilot husband.   

 
 Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain has a recommended retail price of $A49.99. It will be available from all good booksellers throughout Australia. Naturally, Alexander Fax Booksellers will stock signed copies and will offer a 10% discount. Postage and packaging will be additional.
 
 Alexander Fax Booksellers is now taking preorders for Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain. We are not taking payments, now; we just need an expression of interest so we know how many to order from NewSouth! If you haven’t already preordered (or want to confirm that yes, we have you on the list), you can follow the link at http://www.alexanderfaxbooks.com.au/australians-few-and-battle-britain or email alexfax@alexanderfaxbooks.com.au

If you prefer to order via your favourite local (Australian) bookshop, here is what you need to tell them:
Title: Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain, Author: Kristen Alexander
Publisher: NewSouth, ISBN 9781742234151  

 I look forward to sharing with you what I have discovered about Jack Kennedy Stuart Walch, Dick Glyde, Ken Holland, Pat Hughes, Bill Millington, John Crossman and Des Sheen. I will of course tell everyone I know about Australia’s Few and the Battle of Britain. Details are already on my website, and that of Alexander Fax Booksellers, and on our Facebook pages. Please help spread the news to your family and friends, and anyone interested in Australia’s aviation history, by word of mouth or social media, so that more people can learn of the bravery of these young men, and their part in the world’s greatest air war.

https://www.facebook.com/australiasfew
https://www.facebook.com/KristenAlexanderAuthor
Twitter: Kristen Alexander @kristenauthor
www.alexanderfaxbooks.com.au
https://www.facebook.com/AlexanderFaxBooksellers