The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
To the uninitiated, the name Reginald Mitchell might well sound like a retired accountant from Surbiton. To aviation enthusiasts, however, his name is synonymous with the Spitfire. Yet, while the great “R. J. Mitchell” garnered worldwide attention with the 1942...
Just over seven years ago, I wrote a letter to Tom Hanks. I’d recently finished reading Donald L. Miller’s seminal Eighth Air Force book, Masters of the Air. In it, Miller used excerpts from another book I was familiar with – The Mighty Men of the 381st: Heroes All,...
Bomb Group is a compelling story of one unit’s part in the ferocious air battles of 1943 to 1945 that raged over northern Europe, focusing primarily on the human stories that resulted. Assigned to the Eighth Air Force, and equipped initially with Boeing B-17F Flying...
“I wanted to regain for a few moments the experiences that could be relived only by those men who flew from this field in that long ago time of war,” wrote 62-year-old Texan, John Comer, on his return to his former air base in England in 1972. “We were such ordinary...
Michael Smith, what first attracted you to the period you work in? First and foremost, I’m an aviation geek. Much as I like contemporary aircraft, I’m fascinated by historic aviation. In the context of world history, aviation is a modern-day technology, yet it’s been...
