Coastal Command Pilot

RAF World War II
ISBN 1-873203-29-2
    Delivery time:5-7 Days
Add to cart
  • Description
  • Specifications

by Ted Rayner
WW2 experiences of an RAF Coastal Command pilot with 220 Squadron and 269 Squadron in Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

Illustrated with numerous historic photographs, this well-written aviation memoir contains a wealth of information that could be useful to historians and researchers into the activities of RAF Coastal Command in the Arctic, although you don't have to be an expert to enjoy the well-written narrative, which contains plenty to entertain any armchair adventurer or aviation enthusiast with an interest in the history of the Second World War.

Although less well-known and less widely celebrated than that of their counterparts in RAF Fighter Command and  RAF Bomber Command, the activities of the aircrews of RAF Coastal Command were no less essential to the war effort and no less perilous. Flying long patrols over the waters surrounding the British coastline and elsewhere in all weathers  Coastal Command aircrews  kept a constant vigil for enemy  submarines, shipping and aircraft.  Their efforts were a major contribution to the eventual defeat of the U-boats used to such devastating effect in our Atlantic sea approaches.

In this enjoyable memoir Ted Rayner gives a compelling account of his own flying activities during World War Two, which involved patrols over the North Sea and Arctic Ocean, flying from bases in Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

Flying such patrols over the icy waters of the Arctic Circle was an inherently dangerous undertaking, given the certain knowledge that ditching into the sea at those latitudes would not be survivable. Sadly, many Coastal Command crews perished in the icy Arctic waters while performing the dangerous but invaluable role of protecting Allied shipping routes against enemy attacks.

details softback | 140 x 205 mm | 300 pages | b/w photos
genre biography | military history | true war and combat stories | air forces and warfare
keywords RAF, World War 2, Coastal Command