'Shadows of the Past'
By Paul Phillip Gaunt 

"Tubby" Gaunt had a remarkable career during the duration of the Second World War.    His tours of duty encompassed Germany, Italy and the Balkans, a variety of aircraft types, roles of wireless operator, air gunner, pilot - and finally a crash landing and escape from enemy-occupied Yugoslavia.

Like many ex-servicemen, he did not speak about his experiences after the war and it was a chance discovery made by his son, Paul Gaunt, at the Moreton-in-Marsh Wellington Aviation Museum that led to several years of research, recorded in Paul's book: "Shadows of the Past". What emerges is a moving picture of individual experience in 49, 37 and, finally, 70 Squadrons.  

As well as recording the various sorties carried out by Tubby Gaunt in his various tours of duty, Paul Gaunt describes his personal journey of discovery into the wartime world of his father, visiting the site of the final crash landing in the snow in Yugoslavia, piecing together the story of the partisans who helped the crew of the crashed Wellington to escape to the coast and a rescue from the Royal Navy, all this against the crass brutality of life under Nazi occupation.    Tubby Gaunt had flown sorties delivering supplies to the partisans, now he was to experience at first hand exactly what that meant.

'Gardening by Moonlight'
By Peter Ka k and David Gunby 

"The product of research in British, Australian, South African, German, Hungarian and Slovak archives, "Gardening by Moonlight" is about one of the least known and most effective of the Royal Air Force's bombing campaigns of the Second World War.   Operating from a group of bases around Foggia, in Central Italy, the RAF's 205 Group mined the River Danube intensively between April and October 1944, radically curtailing the movement of Axis river shipping and at times halting it altogether.

The Wellington and Liberator crews had to sow their mines (hence the slang term "gardening") at low level on moonlit nights, running the gauntlet of night fighters, flak and balloon barrages.   Their courage, skill and sacrifice are celebrated in what is an important account of a virtually unknown aspect of the war in the air."

Obtainable from Lulu online bookshop

Portrait of a Bomber Pilot 

Christopher Jary

A new paperback 3rd edition of Portrait of a Bomber Pilot (first published in 1990) brings into personal focus the 55,000 young airmen whose deaths are commemorated by the new Bomber Command War Memorial in Green Park. It tells the story of Flight Lieutenant Jack Wetherly DFC, who flew two operational tours on Wellingtons and Halifaxes and was killed, near the end of his second tour, en route to Berlin. 

The author, the son of Jack s widow by her second marriage, would not have been born had Jack survived just a few more operations.  Brought up in the shadow of this tragedy, he wrote this tribute to Jack when he reached the age Jack was when he was killed.   The result is a personal book, which Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC OM DSO DFC thought had an unusual haunting quality. 

From photographs, contemporary records and the first-hand testimony of Jack s friends, this biography pieces together his short, eventful life, tracing his career from pre-war weekend flying through the pioneering, early days of the bomber offensive, to Jack s spell as a flying instructor at RAF Cranwell and, finally, to his part in Air Marshal Harris s main offensive. 

Dr John Sweetman (author of The Dambusters Raid) described Portrait of a Bomber Pilot as an intensely personal odyssey, with the reader as an unseen travelling companion.

Christopher Jary's account of the career of his step-father, Flight Lieutenant Jack Wetherly, DFC. 

Available on Amazon

Wellingtons over the Med by Richard Stowers

A Kiwi (New Zealand) Bomber Pilot's Story from the Mediterranean.

NZ415793 Flying Officer Robert Ernest (Bob) Stowers DFM

Bob, at the age of just 21, was a Wellington bomber pilot with 70 RAF Squadron in the Mediterranean theatre during 1943. 

While with the squadron Bob flew 42 operations against heavily defended ports, railways, airfields and troop concentrations in North Africa and Italy. 

For his bravery and devotion to duty, Bob was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM).  Stuck in the desert with little to no contact with Britain, the airmen of Bob's squadron had to overcome the belief they were fighting a 'forgotten war'. The lack of coverage the Mediterranean theatre received in British media, which included the BBC news and the London dailies as opposed to what Bomber Command received caused many of the crews to feel that they were in a backwater. Even today many historians consider the Mediterranean theatre a lesser campaign.  

Recommendation for the Distinguished Flying Medal [with 70 RAF Squadron]: "This N.C.O. has carried out a most successful tour of operations comprising 41 night sorties amounting to 250.35 hours flying during which time he continually displayed a most praiseworthy determination, cool courage and devotion to duty in the face of the enemy. During the Tunisian campaign, he carried out a number of highly successful attacks on the enemy's heavily defended landing grounds and on the troops and transport concentrated in the battle area. During these attacks, often in adverse weather conditions, he showed great determination in seeking out, illuminating and bombing targets allotted to him. Throughout the Sicilian campaign which included attacks on the heavily defended ports of Messina, Palermo and Catania and during the blitzing of the Italian ports, railways communications and aerodromes, he showed the same undaunted spirit and cool courage, pressing home his attacks with great determination, no matter how stiff the opposition was from the enemy defences. From the very beginning of his tour, this N.C.O. has set a high standard and proved himself to be a steady and excellent operational Captain. I have no hesitation in recommending that his courage and devotion to duty be recognised by the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal (non-immediate)."

Wellingtons over the Med is authored by Bob Stowers' son, Richard, of Hamilton, New Zealand.   In his own words: 

"When I was a boy I found an old leather suitcase tucked in the rafters of the woolshed. It took me a while to realise the significance of the contents, but I established that my dad had been a bomber pilot in the war. To me he instantly became a real hero in a real war.  No combat role in the war was easy. Dad witnessed death at 10,000 feet and on the ground. He knew the emotions of combat and the toll it took on the human soul. Like any other bomber pilot, he felt happiness and relief when he sighted his home airfield after returning from combat.  

"Dad never talked much about his war experiences. There were bits here and there. But the war certainly defined him. Throughout his life he was known as a quiet, loving and modest man. Many believed he was a perfect gentleman.  One would struggle to think he was once a bomber pilot."

Wellingtons over the Med gives a full and accurate description of each of Bob's 42 operations, as well as airfield life in the North African desert.  Bob recalled, "Night-time bombing brought its own pressures without the added pressures of desert living. Most of those on flying duties kept to themselves. We didn t want to get too close to other crews because we might not see them again. The daily routine and squalor dragged on eat, sleep, drink and ops." 

Wellingtons over the Med has over 110 excellent photographs most of them previously unpublished, plus two maps. The book is a must for any Second World War air combat buff.

Now available online in the UK from  Amazon