WAR IN THE AIR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 768, 9 April 1954, Page 12

WAR IN THE AIR

NEW ZEALANDERS WITH THE ROYAL AIR FORCE (Vol. 1), by Wing Commander H. L, Thompson; Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War: War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

(Reviewed by

B.

C.

HIS is the first of three volumes to be _ published under the one title, and covers the European Theatre from 1939 to 1942. The dust jacket tells in simple figures the magnitude of the war effort when it says that just under 11,000 New Zealanders served with the Royal Air Force alone and that, of these, 3290 lost their lives. I well remember, on coming to this country, how surprised I was to find that so many of the men I met casually had served in the air during the war. It seemed as though almost every other young man had been a pilot, navigator or engineer. On reading the figures, and bearing in mind the population of the country, I am no longer surprised; but I remain deeply impressed. I met quite a few New Zealanders in England and many of the names in this first volume make familiar reading. There are also -names which will be

found in any account of New Zealand aviatian-Air Commodore Buckley, Air Commodore Kay and Sir Leonard Isitt. Brilliant war careers are described, and one reads again of such men as Flying Officer E. J. (Cobber) Kain, one of the first of the aces of World War II. Activities covered in the book include the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, the work of No. 75 Squadron, and some of the early attempts at defeating the night raider. The collection and verification of the vast amount of material necessary in writing such a history is an enormous task, but even so, I cannot help a feeling of disappointment that the interval between incident and chronicle is as long as 11 years. Further, the author, bearing in mind that he was writing a reference work, has assembled his material by class of operation, rather than chronologically, so that the reader tends to lose the feeling of Sz Geared and progress. Probably the most human. and stirTing part of the book is one of the appendices, which gives a pilot’s account of an early raid on Turin. His graphic description of the difficulties and discomforts, to say nothing of the dangers

of the flight, fill one with admiration for these men who nightly matched their skill against such odds. Other appendices give a chronological diary of the major events in that theatre during the period under review, and a comparative list of principal British and German operational aircraft. There are maps indicating the spheres of operation referred to in the text, and groups of illustrations. The maps are beautifully produced, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of the photographs.