If, when someone tells you, regarding a book "I couldn't put it down" it's common practice to take the comment as a direct invitation to read it yourself. I therefore have no hesitation in recommending that course of action with this wonderfully entertaining work by Douglas Hudson.
Memories sometimes fade with the years, yet this book could almost describe events that only happened yesterday. Douglas Hudson's recently published chronicle of his time as a RAF navigator during World War 2 reminds me of many books I read as a boy in the 1950s. Despite the passing of more than five decades since the events that he relates, Douglas leaves very few "gaps" in his reminiscences.
Joining the RAFVR as a trainee navigator in September 1939, Douglas went on to serve with 101 and 100 Squadrons, finally returning to civilian life in October 1945. Those years in uniform (or what passed for uniform) included almost two and a half years in captivity by the Vichy French in North Africa. He describes the ill-fated ferrying flight of a 101 Sqn Blenheim to Heliopolis via Malta, which ended with the aircraft crashing in Tunisia.
Much of the book relates Douglas's experiences as a POW. For readers who are more used to the stories of German or Japanese prison camps, the tale of life behind French barbed wire is rather unusual. He escaped on two occasions, and was finally freed in November 1942 after the Americans invaded North Africa.
Following repatriation, he was posted to OCU to be trained on Lancasters, and thence to 100 Squadron at Waltham, Grimsby. He flew a full operational tour, including the infamous Nuremberg raid, as well as "trips" to Berlin and the Ruhr.
The book is more than amply equipped with photographs, maps and documents, adding even more weight to Douglas's fine story telling. Throughout the book, he makes much of the comradeship that he shared, giving the reader a distinct impression of a man to whom friends mean everything. He even pays compliments to some of his erstwhile foes and answers some of the critics of the air war against Nazi Germany in the following way:
"Think again those who were not born at that time, but later chose to criticise adversely. Had the Allied air forces not fought back in those years of peril, when lives, and what is still your country were at stake, many of you would never have been here today. Those who are would not enjoy the pampered privileges which are taken for granted as an automatic right."
This is a book that will be a valuable addition to any library and one that I shall enjoy reading again and again.
Kevin Webster
May 2002