Louis Badolato
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2005
- Messages
- 17,374
I just finished reading two excellent novels (recommended by a fellow treefrogger, thanks Harry!) about an RAF squadron during WWII. The first, Blue Man falling, tracks the squadron's experiences during the Battle of France, while the second, Eagle Squadron, paints a gritty picture of the siege of Malta. There were some extraneous characters (like this homocidal bi-sexual white Russian emigre called Bebe who murders several female characters related to the main character, including his childhood friend and his mother) but all in all a very interesting read. This book played the chivalrous "cricket" approach to war of Kit Curtis, an upper class public school educated British flyer, against the brutal "do onto them before they can do unto you" approach of his German-American squadron mate Ossie Wolf, who sent by his father to Spain to serve in the Condor Legion on the side of the fascists, witnessed the horrors of Guernica, and ended up serving with the republican forces. There is extreme brutality depicted on the part of French and German forces, as well as, of course Ossie. It really paints what I (who admittedly never heard a shot fired in anger) believe to be an accurate picture of the physical and mental horrors of war, and the hardening of the boys who fight it into disillusioned (and often hateful) old men, virtually overnight.
I also read another Novel about an RAF Hurricane squadron during the Fall of France and the Battle of Britain, called "A Piece of Cake". This novel had excellent insights into the poor stretegy employed by the British at the beginning of the war (who refused to adopt the better tactics employed by the Germans, learned through experience in Spain and Poland) until France had fallen and they were defending their own homeland. The characters in this book, however, are either characitures of real flyers (one of the main characters is a wealthy American volunteer who was on the U.S. Olympic Bobsled team and raced yachts, gee who does that sound like; another dies performing acrobatic stunts in his Hurricane showing off in France, Cobber Cane maybe?) or bizarre creatures that seem better fitted for a book on sociopaths and serial killers than an RAF Squadron (one pilot murders an RAF logistical officer to protect the squadron commander from a court martial, and then murders the squadron commander when he realizes his refusal to change tactics might get him killed, while swindling and forging checks from an injured former squadron mate). That being said, I would read a sequal if there is one, as the author was a post war RAF veteran, and the information on the flying tactics he imparts is fascinating.
I also read another Novel about an RAF Hurricane squadron during the Fall of France and the Battle of Britain, called "A Piece of Cake". This novel had excellent insights into the poor stretegy employed by the British at the beginning of the war (who refused to adopt the better tactics employed by the Germans, learned through experience in Spain and Poland) until France had fallen and they were defending their own homeland. The characters in this book, however, are either characitures of real flyers (one of the main characters is a wealthy American volunteer who was on the U.S. Olympic Bobsled team and raced yachts, gee who does that sound like; another dies performing acrobatic stunts in his Hurricane showing off in France, Cobber Cane maybe?) or bizarre creatures that seem better fitted for a book on sociopaths and serial killers than an RAF Squadron (one pilot murders an RAF logistical officer to protect the squadron commander from a court martial, and then murders the squadron commander when he realizes his refusal to change tactics might get him killed, while swindling and forging checks from an injured former squadron mate). That being said, I would read a sequal if there is one, as the author was a post war RAF veteran, and the information on the flying tactics he imparts is fascinating.
