Little bit of a false start I’m afraid.
I’ve been busy during normal reading time and I can’t seem to concentrate on anything but the music in the Cabin at the moment…
I hope to get back to it tonight or at the weekend.
The amazing true story of America’s first Black generals, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Jr., a father and son who helped integrate the American military and created the Tuskegee Airmen.
Picked this up after seeing an interview with the author on the PBS News Hour. Certainly a story of the bravery of men to endure prejudice and rise above the barriers placed in their path. Just a couple of chapters into the book and find it to be an interesting read.
I have finished reading Len Deighton’s “bomber” for the second time in my life.
I read it for the first time as an 18 year old in 1976 and it had a profound impact on me at the time. Although it was fictional, i had watched enough war films then to know that it would have been very close to how war actually was. The reason i had never re-read it was the graphic description of a mid upper turret gunner in a Lancaster and the way he met his death, i remember vividly crying in 1976 while i was reading that section. 43 years latter as i read the same section, i started crying again before i even got to the description of how he died because i vividly remembered my first reading of the book 1976. When a book has a profound impact on you, it is something you never ever forget.
Interesting - there’s also that ‘in air’ broadcast by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas from an RAF Lancaster over Berlin in 1943, still available on BBC Sounds. At one stage you can actually hear the rear gunner take out a Luftwaffe night fighter, a very lucky moment for them. Apparently the recording was cut ‘direct to disk’ in acetate and it went out over the Home Service the next night !
Just starting this. With the release of the new film it reminded me how much I enjoyed studying Napoleon at school, most of which is long forgotten now.