AIR WAR OVER EAST YORKSHIRE - REVIEWS

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I have been eagerly awaiting this book, because I was born and bred in the West Riding of Yorkshire, so it's about my home patch. This 176-page hardback is not just about air operations, but also about what happened on the ground and the people it affected.

Like most coastal areas, East Yorkshire had its share of radar stations and one of the first aerial activities picked up at one such station - RAF Staxton Wold - was on 3 August 1939. Believe it or not, this was Graf Zeppelin on an Elint gathering mission some 15 miles (24 km) off the coast.. An early chapter covers preparations for war, search­lights, barrage balloons, anti-aircraft guns, and coastal artillery pieces, among other things. There are photographs of various air raid shelters, the Land Army, the ATS, mine demolition and even a Lewis gun manned by fishermen. This sets the scene for the air operations. German raids are faithfully recorded, as is the RAF response, both in home defence and over occupied Europe. The book is peppered with personal accounts, some of them amusing. One such story is of a Mrs Evelyn Cardwell who, when sorting out Home Guard papers at her farmhouse, was informed that German parachutists were coming down. She tried unsuccessfully to ring the authorities and on going outside saw a German aircrew member landing near the house. She approached him and demanded his revolver. She then kept him prisoner until help arrived. For that action she was awarded the British Empire Medal.

If you know this part of the world then you will be fascinated by this potted history. The aviation side is well documented, and one such operation brings back memories for me. This was an attempt to reach Manchester with V1s launched from He llls. I was told off in no uncertain terms by my father for dashing outside trying to see the flying bomb that seemed to be passing over­head!

This book contains a large number of photographs and 22 colour profiles. Among the photographs there are a couple of particular interest to the modeller. One is a front view of a Heinkel He 111 with the letter '0' painted on its leading edges. This was apparently done so that the groundcrew could find this particular aircraft in the gloom. The second is for the weathering fanatics. It illustrates a Whitley Mk V with a considerable amount of paint stripped off its propeller blades, from spinner to tip, caused by de-icer liquid leakage.

This is a lovely book and one that is a joy to own. If you are a Yorkshire man, then you must have it!

Ernie Lee
Scale Aircraft Modelling - Volume 28 Number 2

What I did over Christmas. Part 2. In between blasting the modelling room with Halford's acrylic white, I was able to relax with this most excellent and entertaining publication. which arrived in the office in the nick of time - just before we broke up for the hols.

Being a Yorkshire-dweller, if not a Yorkshireman by birth, it was doubly attractive, as the keen sense of involvement the book exudes was not entirely lost on me. It covers the entire WW2 period as the air war related to East Yorks. So of what use is it to the modeller you may ask?

Firstly, there is a mass or photographs, many I'd certainly never come across before, and a continuity to the narrative that puts the reader on the spot in a way more technical works of reference never do. Modelling, I never tire of saying, is either an art or a science. If it is an art then this is the book for you, as it will transport you into your subject matter; without pausing to count the rivets along the way.

If that is too 'New-Age' an approach to book reviewing for you, then all there is left to say is that this is a beautiful, well-presented document, lovingly researched and highly readable. The mass of anecdotal account is priceless, and the research meticulous.

GH
Scale Aviation Modeller International - February 2006

Letters to the Editor - Yorkshire Post
Memories of war in the air

FOR all who have found evocation or interest in recent correspondence in this column regarding the sightings of Spitfires and Luftwaffe aircraft over the East Riding, I would recommend the reading of Air War over East Yorkshire in World War II, by Paul Bright (Flight Recorder Publications, Ottringham, 2005).

This well-researched book provides.a full, and sometimes surprising, account of all aerial activities in that part of the country dates, places, targets, aircraft and crews involved; and also, details and photographs of the now often overlooked devastation heaped upon the city of Hull - second only to that experienced by London - and to a lesser but still harmful extent, Bridlington and Driffield.

G Myers
Tranmere Park, Guiseley, Leeds