The Engines of Bomber Command: Europe 1939-1945
Bomber Command Museum of Canada or available via Search
The Bristol Hercules, Rolls-Royce Merlin & others
The twenty-one inter-war years saw the development of bomber aircraft and their engines. They ranged from the single-engine biplane, Hawker Hind, to the single-engine monoplane, Fairey Battle, and to the twin-engine monoplane, Vickers Wellington. These aircraft were followed by the wartime four-engine heavy bomber, the Bristol Hercules engine Handley Page Halifax, and the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine Avro Lancaster. The various engines of Bomber Command aircraft were responsible for the successful missions of taking the numerous types of Bomber Command aircraft to their target and back to home base.
This book will be published by the Bomber Command Museum of Canada, Nanton, Alberta, Canada as part of the advertising and fundraising campaign for the volunteer museum. The museum presently has a ground running Merlin four-engine Avro Lancaster, and a stand running Bristol Hercules engine with a project to rebuild Bristol Hercules engines for a Handley Page Halifax restoration project.
Lancaster Manual 1943
The Manual book was requested by Amberley Publishing as a companion to their very successful Spitfire Manual 1940. The book gives a brief history of the Avro Lancaster’s development and its World War Two contribution in the success of the bombing campaign. Excerpts from a wartime Maintenance and Descriptive manual, Air Ministry publications on technical subjects, and wartime instructional navigation notes complement personal accounts by crew members. A speech given by one of the pilots on the famous Dam Raids concludes the manuscript.
NORAD and the Soviet Nuclear Threat
The success of the “The Cold Warriors” article in The Beaver magazine indicated to me that a full account of NORAD would contribute to the history and understanding of the defence of Canada. The secret electronic wars fought in the skies above the “True North strong and free” should be recounted to Canadians so that they understand how we have and maintain the freedom of our great land.
My research confirmed that the Amalgam Mute exercise on the 10th May 1973 would provide an historic snapshot of those times with many of the participants available for interview. The interviewees included the fighter and target aircraft aircrew, the ground radar operators, intercept directors, squadron maintenance and armament personnel. Their stories are interspersed with a comprehensive explanation of the Cold War and technical description of the aircraft and radar systems. The exercise is described in detail with the benefit of inside knowledge, the author was involved in these missions, and draws the reader into the action.
The resulting book gives the reader a comprehensive overview, never available in one source before, of the NORAD operations in the skies above Canada as the public went about their daily lives totally unaware of the defensive shield above them. The fact that Canadian interceptors trained with, and had access to in the event of war, nuclear capable rockets for many years is not widely known.
The NORAD Agreement is one of the longest agreements between Canada and the USA and has been in effect for 60 years and still maintains its motto to Deter, Detect, Defend.
Dudley and the Forest Monster
Search or available at Author
When Dudley sees a strange creature in the forest behind his house one night, he decides to set out with his friends, Dudley's Adventure Club, to capture the monster and save the town. Treehouses, forest trails, traps, and streams all feature in their adventure as they go into the deep dark forest. Will they capture the monster? If they do what will they do with it? Is there only one? Dudley is determined to solve the secret of the Forest Monster and he needs the help of his friends to do it.
The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine was the power behind the Royal Air Force in fighters, bombers and fighter-bombers. Developed from a long line of engines, including the famous ‘R’ engine of the Schneider Trophy, it was formed in the mind of one man, Henry Royce, and developed by many men to not only defend Britain in WWII but also to take the fight to the enemy and ultimate victory. A remarkable story of a piston engine called after a bird of prey, the Merlin.
The Lancaster book was written as a complete history of the Avro Lancaster from the drawing board to the present day. Its journey is described in detail as it is introduced as a heavy bomber in the Squadrons of the Allied Forces during World War Two. Its contribution to Bomber Command was immeasurable not only in regular missions but as a Pathfinder aircraft and speciality targets such as the Dam Raids. The seven-person crew positions are explained in detail as they worked as a team to get the job done and the narrative includes personal accounts of an interviewed bomb aimer and tail gunner. The efforts to preserve present day museum and flying example Lancasters are extensively described as the seventy-year-old aircraft continue to educate and awe the public. The narrative is superbly supported by a vast collection of wartime and modern photographs.
The Beaver Magazine article
I was asked to write an article for The Beaver magazine, now known as Canada’s History magazine, in 2009 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of flight in Canada. In “Canada’s Cold Warriors” described a North American Air Defence (NORAD) mission that took place in the 1970s. The fighter and target aircraft crews that participated were interviewed and recounted their part in the NORAD exercise.
Bomber Command: The Men, Machines & Missions 1936-1968
Amberley or available via Search
This book tells the history of Bomber Command and emphasise its importance after the 1940 Battle of Britain when the tide of war changed, and assets became available to enable bombing of the enemy’s resources. The controversial military and political decisions that were made, for and against, area and strategic bombing will be addressed.
The entire organisation, Groups, Squadrons, Stations and the aircraft of Bomber Command, depended on the brave men and women that supported the Command’s ability to bring the bombing campaign to the enemy, night after night, despite appalling losses. Perhaps the most well-known story to the general public is Wing Commander Guy Gibson and the ‘Dam Buster’ 617 RAF Squadron and its Avro Lancaster aircraft on the mission to destroy dams in the industrial Ruhr Valley in Germany.
This is their wartime story, spectacular successes and failures, that continued in peacetime as a strategic nuclear strike force into the early 1960s.