HELL ON EARTH: DRAMATIC FIRST HAND EXPERIENCES OF BOMBER COMMAND AT WAR.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Companion volume to 'TO HELL AND BACK',ISBN 1902304365.] FINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn but price-clipped dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,wrap-around colour pictorial artwork,by Mike Steele-Morgan,illustrated dw/dj,with white+red lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present. Internal bottom edges of dw/dj with slight red ink bleeding water(?) staining - boards minimally affected though.Partial,light water-staining to bottom+vertical edges
to front pastedown and ffe,and similar - to rear pastedown,but whole vertical edge of rear free endpaper.Inevitable,but light superficial scoring/ indentations to both panels of dw/dj,but without affecting the bds beneath.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,would appear unread apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original,plain red cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,8-192pp [paginated] includes 20 chapters,32pp contemporary b/w photographs+ illustrations in 1 block,between pp96/7,a glossary,a bibliography and an index.Plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,and contents list/table.
On a dark desperate night in June 1943 a stricken Halifax bomber limped low over Holland and crashed in a small meadow of cows.The aircraft was wrecked,but its crew,amazingly,stepped out unhurt.This is just one of twenty new and true stories of bravery,survival and luck,good and bad, contained in this book compiled and written by Mel Rolfe,following the success of his first book for Grub Street,'To Hell and Back',previously published in 1998.
Another tells of a young rear gunner who swapped positions with his pal in the mid-upper turret, becuse of a faulty face mask and microphone.The rear gunner lived,but his friend was killed. . . Yet another of a bomber crew who baled out leaving a skipper to what seemed like certain death.The aircraft ploughed on through the tops of trees and managed to land safely with the pilot alive.There are many more bizarre coincidences and incidents in this action-packed collection of stories from a variety of aircrew in a selection of planes - Halifax,Lancaster,Wellington,Liberator,Stirling and Whitley.
All the stories are illustrated with never-before-published photographs,and Mel Rolfe,a journalist by profession,has written them in such a way as to take the reader back to those wartimre years of duty and courage.
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