[ARC5] Recommended Books

[Mark K3MSB]

I just completed reading “Bring Back my Stringbag”,  Swordfish pilot at war
1940-1945 by Lord Kilbracken (formerly Lieutenant-Commander John Godly
RNVR).

This book follows Godly's fascination with flying as a youth through his
wartime journey as a Swordfish pilot.    Most interestingly,  it contains
several chapters on MAC (Merchant Aircraft Carrier) operations in the North
Atlantic as well as Royal Navy escort operations in the same area.    Also,
it covers his exploits flying the Swordfish against the Germans in Norway.
   I found the book to be well written (but not a lot of radio related
material).

Other books I've finished that I recommend:

“Hitlers Eagles – The Luftwaffe 1933-1945” by Chris McNab.   This goes into
deep details of all aspects of the Luftwaffe, including significant unit
histories (and I have to confess,  I glossed over some of those.....).

“Yesterday we were in America”   Alcock and Brown, first to fly the
Atlantic Non-Stop, by Brendan Lynch.

“Midway the Battle that doomed Japan” by Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake
Okumiya (formerly of the Imperial Japanese Navy).     This was the first
published account in Japan concerning Midway in the early 1950's,  and
translated into English around 1955.   I read this immediately after
re-reading “Miracle at Midway” by George W. Prange, which I consider to be
the best text on the subject.  To be honest, I expected Fuchida's book to
be slanted to make Japan look not as bad as it was,  but he and Okumiya
don't pull any punches – they provided an objective assessment of what
happened.  Lot's of very detailed maps.

All the books are available from Amazon;  “Bring back my Stringbag” and
“Midway the Battle that doomed Japan” are out of print,  but I got them
from second hand sellers linked to Amazon (Midway was $13 shipped......).

73 Mark K3MSB
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