Book review. Lancaster Men. The Aussie Heroes of Bomber Command by Peter Rees

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.

Another review of Australian Eagles

Another review of Australian Eagles! 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) and it includes Peter Ingman's review of Australian Eagles. Peter has homed in on two aspects of my particular style of aviation writing: that I favour a personal, biographical approach rather than a technical treatise on battle and materiel; and that I eschew the 'faction' of cockpit action. I have reprinted a large chunk of the review here.

 

Australian Eagles comprises the stories of six Australian fighter pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain. There are no lengthy dissertations on the rise of National Socialism or the design history of the Spitfire; Alexander gets straight down to business after a brief reminder of the importance of the Battle of Britain, including Churchill’s famous words, ‘Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation...’. So it was that an extraordinary weight was placed on the shoulders of ‘The Few’—generally young men barely out of school.

The Australian pilots in the Battle of Britain were indeed just a few (around 30—the number varies depending on your definition of ‘Australian’) among ‘The Few’. These men had joined the air force during peacetime so their stories immediately differ from the typical WWII pilot biography. Some trained at Point Cook but then joined the RAF in short service commissions—so there was a cadre of Australian fighter pilots flying years before the first fighter squadron would be formed in Australia.

This book is about the less celebrated pilots. ... Four of these pilots were killed in 1940, although there were still another five hard years of war ahead—five years of significant events that would further obscure this period. It is touching to see how these men are remembered today—particularly by their school communities, but also by others. Only the most passionate of researchers would explore these relatively brief stories to find something about the nature and character of these men—and Alexander does just that. Underlining these difficulties, there is an ‘interlude’ describing the dearth of records concerning one of the pilots, Dick Glyde, who is barely remembered in squadron records and even excluded from certain accounts.

Alexander has her own style as an aviation writer. She does not try and put the reader in the cockpit, nor are actions embellished with detail that can only have been assumed. This is a difficulty for aviation writers: often complex events are accounted for very tersely in squadron records or logbooks. It is easy, then, to borrow from the experiences of others and in doing so overshadow the primary character concerned. Alexander does not go down that path. In fact by focusing on some relatively brief careers she gives her subjects a certain humility—and as a result treats them with due reverence.

For this reason the book is in many ways a refreshing angle on this subject. It reminds us that there is more to fighter pilots than just their tally count. In particular, all of those who lost their lives leave behind a rich legacy in their communities and family which lives on to the present day.

 

Alexander Fax Bookseller's display of Australian Eagles

Book Review. Air Disaster Canberra. The Plane Crash that Destroyed a Government by Andrew Tink

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

 

Andrew Tink: Air Disaster Canberra. The Plane Crash that Destroyed a Government (New South, April 2013, x, 309 pp, b&w photos, notes, index, bibliography. ISBN: 9781742233574)

 

I enjoyed the book and think it is an important addition to Australia's military and civil aviation history.

Here's the review...

When I first mentioned Air Disaster Canberra to my military aviation friends there was a ripple of excitement. We had all heard about the crash, we knew some of the aspects of the story from the RAAF perspective, we all had our own theories about Bob Hitchcock’s involvement in the incident, but we had virtually no knowledge of the political consequences. We anticipated a good read and I was not disappointed. Nor, for that matter, was anyone else I know who read this remarkable book. Air Disaster Canberra is divided into three sections: the political rise of the Anzac generation which includes the military backgrounds of key politicians, essential for an understanding of the significance of the loss of their potential contribution to the prosecution of the war; the last flight of Hudson A16-97 on 13 August 1940; and an account of the destabilisation and destruction of the Menzies government which led to John Curtin’s prime ministership in October 1941.

 

At the heart of Air Disaster Canberra are two arguments. Firstly, that the crash directly led to the change of government the following year and, secondly, that Jim Fairbairn had been at the controls of the Hudson when it crashed. Andrew Tink presents a well constructed case, puts a tragic accident into its proper political perspective, and blends historical background seamlessly into a well written narrative.

 

Andrew Tink occasionally overdoes the block quotes—mainly those relating to the inquiry transcripts—but some are pertinent. For instance, Brudenell White’s words when he accepted his temporary wartime return to duty are poignant in light of what was to come: ‘I do not want to act to the detriment of any permanent staff officer, and as soon as my services are unnecessary I want to return to the farm’. I also found Menzies’ recollection of his reaction to the death of his colleagues moving: ‘Gullett was dead; Street was dead; Fairbairn was dead; the most scholarly and technically talented soldier in Australian history, Sir Brudenell White whom I had recalled from retirement ... was dead.’ Another was Sergeant Jo Gullett’s account of the cold, clinical way in which his senior officer (he was at a British tactical training school at the time) informed him of the death of his father: ‘I have a message from your General Blamey to say that I am to inform you that your father was killed in an air accident yesterday’. He then rattled off the arrangements to return to Australia, concluding with ‘You may overdraw your pay if you wish. I am sorry about this, sergeant. I think that is all.’ These are the exceptions that prove that sometimes block quotes are better than authorial recasting.

 

This is Andrew Tink’s third book; his first two were biography—William Charles Wentworth: Australia’s greatest native son won ‘The Nib’ CAL Waverley Award for Literature—and his biographical skills are again displayed here: he is a particularly talented portrait painter and the reader gains a clear sense of the ten men who died: the politicians, Brigadier Geoffrey Street, Minister for the Army and Repatriation; James Valentine Fairbairn, the Minister for Air and Civil Aviation; Sir Henry Gullett, vice-president of the Executive Council and Minister in charge of Scientific and Industrial Research; General Sir Cyril Brudenell White, who came out of retirement to take up the appointment of Chief of the General Staff; White’s staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Thornthwaite; Fairbairn’s private secretary, Richard Elford; and the four RAAF crew, the Hudson’s pilot Flight Lieutenant Robert Edward Hitchcock, Pilot Officer Richard Frederick Wiesener, Corporal John Frederick Palmer and Aircraftman Charles Joseph Crosdale.

 

Andrew Tink points out Fairbairn had offered Arthur Fadden, the assistant minister to the treasurer a seat on the Hudson. He later retracted the offer because it had only been made because he understood Dick Elford would be travelling by train. But then Elford decided to stay in Melbourne an extra night to celebrate his wedding anniversary and thus take the seat on the Hudson. Fadden travelled safely by train and went on to become a short term wartime prime minister and long serving post war treasurer. Dick Elford climbed into the Hudson and did not alight at Canberra. It is to Andrew Tink’s credit that he presents this tragic circumstance simply and lightly, with no weighing of a potential greater political good of the surviving politician against the loss of the 30 year old loyal husband and father of twin sons. 

 

For many years, Bob Hitchcock’s flying ability has been called into question, most notably by former RAAF Historian Chris Coulthard-Clark in The Third Brother and Hitchcock’s near contemporaries, Richard Kingsland and Herb Plenty. In arguing that Fairbairn was at the controls, Andrew Tink provides evidence attesting to Hitchcock’s skill with the Hudson and number of incident-free hours flown in this type. I was very pleased to see this reappraisal of Hitchcok’s airmanship, after all many fine pilots took time to develop their skills. Clive Caldwell, for one, admitted that he was not particularly good at flying when he started out, and Pat Hughes, who was a year behind Hitchcock at Point Cook, was ranked 28th in his course and assessed as having no outstanding qualities.

 

Andrew Tink claims that it was perfectly reasonable for Fairbairn to take the risk of landing the Hudson and that Fairbairn deserves his place in history as a respected ‘aviation hero, whose pioneering work, both before and during the war, helped to make flying safer for everyone’. I agree that Fairbairn should be remembered for his good work but I am not comfortable that Andrew Tink failed to acknowledge that if Fairbairn was at the controls, he was responsible for the deaths of nine men as well as his own. That aside, I was fascinated by Andrew Tink’s account of the demise of Hudson A16-97 and all on board. Ultimately, I was swayed by his reasoned speculation about Fairbairn and his careful analysis of the consequences of the loss of three cabinet ministers. I fully agree with his disappointment in the current state of the Canberra memorial to the crash’s victims. But where Canberra fails to honour, Air Disaster Canberra does not. This is a fine tribute to the men who died in the Hudson crash. Highly recommended.  

 

Chalfont St Giles and John Crossman

The Chalfont St Giles parish church dates from the 12th Century. It has fine stained glass windows—mostly Victorian but a few much older—and wall paintings from the 14th–15th centuries. The weather over the last month or so has been warm and wet and the grass in the churchyard had grown considerably and so the parish recently conducted another working bee and the grounds are once again neat and tidy. A big 'down-under' thank you to the diligent parishioners, especially my friend Ian.

 

Recently, one of the Friends of the parish was talking to a visitor who brought two German friends with her. The visitor explained that back in the eighties she had met the fiancée of a pilot buried in the churchyard. It did not take too much detective work to realise that this visitor had met John Crossman’s fiancée, Pat. (The other RAF grave is that of a married airman.)

 

My friend Ian contacted her and she told him that, on 26 August 1988, she had her family had been returning by boat from the Scilly Isles. The weather was poor and combined with rough seas there were a number of queasy people on the upper deck. She found myself seated next Pat. Pat explained that she had gone to Chalfont St Giles a number of times over the years and would be visiting John’s grave again soon. They met briefly when Pat returned to Chalfont St. Giles and had a perfect English tea, in a perfect English garden. It is heart warming to think that this woman has  visited John’s grave in Pat’s stead and shared John’s story with two German friends.

 

 

 

An extract from my Australia’s Few blog http://australiansinthebattleofbritain.blogspot.com.au/ was recently published in the Chalfont St Giles parish magazine.

 

 

Kristen's Echat With... series. A writer interviewing writers

Have you checked out any of my Echat with... interviews?

The first interview on 1 May was with up and coming ebook and self published author Justin Sheedy http://kristenalexanderauthor.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/kristens-echat-with-justin-sheedy_30.html

The second, on 1 June, was with aviation author Charles Page http://kristenalexanderauthor.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/kristens-echat-with-charles-page.html

The most recent, one 1 July, was with pilot, aviation author and journalist Owen Zupp http://kristenalexanderauthor.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/kristens-echat-with-owen-zupp.html

Forthcoming interviews (which appear at the beginning of each month) are with historian Michael Molkentin, bloggist and book reviewer Andy Wright, Crime and YA author Sulari Gentill and pilot and author Mac Tucker.

Another wonderful review of Australian Eagles!

Author Justin Sheedy has just posted his take on my third book. In the week of the 73rd anniversary of the commencement of the Battle of Britain, it is an apt recognition of my personal tribute to the brave men who fought in Britain's great conflict. Thank you Justin. And thank you for permission to reprint here.

http://crackernight.com/2013/07/08/australian-eagles-australians-in-the-battle-of-britain-by-kristen-alexander-reviewed-by-justin-sheedy/

Australia Eagles by Kristen Alexander

 

Sometimes history doesn’t seem real.  Especially when it seems too dramatic, too tragic, too surreally heroic to be true.  In her latest book, ‘Australian Eagles – Australians in the Battle of Britain’, author Kristen Alexander renders such history quite arrestingly real through her accounts of the part played by young Australians in the making of that history.

 

The Battle of Britain of 1940 remains one of the most famous battles in history, to this day a perfect model of resistance of good against evil and victory against that evil despite staggeringly overwhelming odds.  In that dark year the air force of Nazi Germany, having just rolled up Western Europe, sought to knock out the by comparison tiny British Royal Air Force as a prelude to Nazi invasion of Britain.  The Germans thought they had won before they started.  The iconic battle that ensued proved them wrong.  Of the victorious defenders, Winston Churchill coined one of the most famous lines in the English language: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”  ‘Australian Eagles’ is a portrait of six of the Australians within that now immortal “Few”.

 

Kristen signing at recent book launch

 

Kristen Alexander portrays six shining young men.  Four of whom lost their young lives in the battle, a fifth losing a leg though continuing to fly until 90-something, the sixth remaining unscathed despite bailing out of his Spitfire in hot air combat no less than three times.  Shining young men?  It’s no exaggeration:  Alexander’s beautifully-researched account of each of them reveals the kind of exceptional personalities they were, often top-notch sportsmen as well, and all so very, very young:  Their photographs within the pages of ‘Australian Eagles’ attest to this and reveal fairly each of them as arrestingly handsome, usually with a brave new moustache – as if to mask the fact that they were just boys.  By portraying them as such and quite simply as they were, Kristen Alexander encourages us to feel their loss just as profoundly as it deserves to be.  To marvel at their selflessness, their courage, their dog-fighting brilliance and their contribution towards victory against one of the worst evils the world has ever known.  To remember them.

 

‘Australian Eagles’ in indeed a fitting testament to the young Australians who fought to win the Battle of Britain but most poignantly as they did it a whole world away from home. 

 

‘Australian Eagles – Australians in the Battle of Britain’ by Kristen Alexander. Order now at http://www.alexanderfaxbooks.com.au/available-now-australian-eagles-australians-battle-britain 

 

 

Author Justin Sheedy

 

Reviewer Justin Sheedy is the author of ‘Goodbye Crackernight’ and ‘Nor the Years Condemn’.  See Justin’s Blog http://crackernight.com/

Searching for Jacqueline Bush, born October 1922, formerly of 23 Beaumont Close, Gidea Park, Romford

Can anyone help? I am trying to find out about Jacqueline Bush, who was friends with John Crossman and Billy Pattullo of 46 Squadron in the last weeks of their lives in 1940.

 

18-year-old Jacqueline Bush of 23 Beaumont Close, Gidea Park, Romford, was a happy, carefree young woman with a great sense of fun. In September 1940 she met Australian John Crossman and Chilean-born Billy Pattullo, known to Jacqueline and his squadron friends as Pat. Both had recently been posted to 46 Squadron at Stapleford Tawney.

John Crossman

 

Billy Pattullo 

John and Billy were very busy in the last weeks of September. Jacqueline’s heart ached for them. ‘They used to be flying at dawn...and they often weren’t off duty until 10.00 p.m.’ When the young pilot-officers could grasp a few hours relief they met up with their new friend. They sped about in John’s car, the three of them squashed in the front seat, Jacqueline feeling ‘proud as a peacock’ sitting between her handsome escorts. They cracked jokes and told stories, laughing madly in an effort to forget the serious business of fighting. ‘What fun we had’, Jacqueline recalled. ‘We used to tear around and just shriek at the most idiotic things—just like three kids.’

 

On 30 September John was killed in battle. His Hurricane crashed in flames at Tablehurst Farm, Forest Row. Jacqueline was still grieving for her friend when Billy’s Hurricane was badly damaged in battle on 25 October and, while attempting to land, he struck a house in Harold Park. He died from injuries the next day.

 

Jacqueline had known John and Billy for such a short time but greatly missed her ‘charming, attractive and gallant’ friends. She recalled that ‘we didn’t have much time together but what we did have was glorious.’

 

On the first anniversary of John’s death Jacqueline wrote to his family and told them about the great friendship he, Billy and she had shared and the happiness of John’s last days. She kept in touch and years later told the Crossmans that she could ‘still see him standing there in the moonlight’ on that last night. ‘Smiling and looking really happy. I always want to remember him just like that.’ Thanks to Jacqueline, that is how John’s family was able to remember him.

 

I would like to know about Jacqueline Bush’s background, her brief but glorious friendship with two young pilots who died in the Battle of Britain, and the ‘what happened next’ in her life. So far I have discovered that Jacqueline M and her twin sister Jeanne B Bush of Romford born in October 1922. Their mother’s maiden name was Lane. Their father was in the army and, in March 1943, was stationed in San Francisco, in charge of troop movements. There were only four in the family. Mrs Bush was very ill in the latter part of 1942 and Jacquie moved back home to Beaumont Close. Jacquie had a serious accident when she was knocked down by a lorry in early 1943. She had a badly lacerated scalp and would be subject to bad headaches probably all her life. She had trained in aircraft inspection but after the accident could not stand the noise so would have to look to some other war work. She had not come up with anything by March 1943. She was very anti-rushed marriage in wartime. (It was one of her little hobby horses.) She believed that many of the girls who married in haste in wartime would have a shock when their husbands came home. She said that she would never marry while the war is on. Attitudes change over time but she was not married in March 1943 and it seemed a strongly held stance so I would not expect to see a marriage for her before the war was over!

 

Ancestry.com indicates that a Jacqueline Bush married someone called Field or Ehrenfeld in Chelsea London in March 1950 a Jacqueline Bush married an Elliott in Bromley Kent in March 1957. Ancestry also indicates a marriage of Jeanne B Bush to a Kennedy in September 1944 in Romford and also another in 1955 to a Courtney in Romford. But I don’t know if these marriages relate to John’s and Pat’s young friend and or her sister.

 

If anyone knows what happened to Jacqueline or knows someone from her family, please get in touch with me at alexfax@alexanderfaxbooks.com.au