26 | FLIGHTPATH
Personal Effects
to offer. This year the venerable P-
40K Warhawk heads up this great
selection of rare warbirds. These
include the B-17, FG-1D, Lysander
and P-26A to mention a few. Addi-
tionally the W.W.I – ‘Great War’
Calendar presents further endur-
ing images that are led off by a
formation of three German Alba-
tros, complemented by other fly-
ing rarities including a Sopwith
Tabloid, Curtiss JN-4H Jenny,
B.E.2c, Sopwith 7F.1 Snipe, and
more to admire for each month of
- (Reviewer: Rob Fox)
Phillip Makanna, $29 + $10
P& P, http://www.aviationart.com.
au, phone 03 9592 1943,
PO Box 2311, Nth Brighton,
Vic 3187
One Life Left
There were so many incredible,
‘unknown’ people in the RAF.
Wing Commander Hugh Garlick
DFC was one of them. His serv-
ice career was incredibly varied
and the aircraft he flew were
from a more romantic era of
aviation. The author’s first post-
ing was to No. 56 Squadron in
the mid-thirties, where he flew
Gloster Gauntlets and proved a
talented pilot. RAF pilots flew
in the Fleet Air Arm so Garlick
eventually ended up in the Med-
iterranean flying float-equipped
Swordfish and Hawker Nimrods.
The flying, as so entertainingly
described, was simply idyllic.
With the war imminent, Gar-
lick expected to be sent home.
He ended up in Gibraltar, again
flying Swordfish floatplanes,
performing convoy and U-boat
patrols. When he did return
home, he was given command of
No. 235 Squadron and its Beau-
fighters based in the Shetlands.
Amazingly, he returned to the
Med after the squadron is post-
ed to Malta. However, after six
weeks, Garlick returned home
and became Chief Instructor of
No. 2 OTU. He was then unable
to avoid a stint in Operations
(during the height of the V-1
campaign) before seeing out the
war as Fleet Aviation Officer for
C-in-C Home Fleet. Back in the
Navy! This is a delightful book.
It is written with humour, mod-
esty and regularly has a wonder-
ful turn of phrase e.g. “...I was
decanted into the rear of a
Swordfish...”.
It does have the occasional
little niggle in print-on-demand
form but it’s a great read and,
pleasingly, is available in many
formats, notably the iPad ver-sion is loaded with extras. (Re-
viewer: Andy Wright)
Hugh Garlick DFC, $34.07
plus p&p (hardcover),
http://www.lulu.com/au; $3.99,
Apple iTunes; 1.99 GBP
(ePub), http://www.lulu.comMosquito
Down!
Frank Dell joined Bomber Com-
mand’s Light Night Striking
Force (LNSF) with more than
1,000 hours in his logbook. Af-
ter initial training in England,
he had been sent to the US to
earn his wings but was kept
back to instruct. He finally flew
his first operation at the end of
August 1944. He was shot down
on his thirteenth.
The main focus of this book is
the author’s remarkable journey
as an evader in Germany and Oc-
cupied Holland, so do not expect
great insight into the life of an
LNSF crew. The final operation,
and a beautifully detailed account
of the first are the only flights
written about in depth. But the
meat of the book is his evasion af-
ter shoot-down. Few readers
would not be on the edge of their
seat as the author treks generally
westwards for five nights. He sur-
vives a number of close calls with
German civilians and soldiers.
Failing physically, he maintains
his wits to make it just inside the
Dutch border where he is found by
local teenagers. What follows is as
remarkable as his fifty-plus mile
walk. Looked after by the Dutch
Resistance, the author assists
them during supply drops and,along with other downed fliers,
manages to get out and about sur-
prisingly often although this was
sometimes in response to ‘hunt-
ing parties’ looking for Allied air-
men. Six months in hiding and
several more close calls pass be-
fore he is ‘liberated’. A book of
typical quality from this publish-
er, this is very much a tribute to
the brave men and women of the
Dutch Resistance as told by one
they saved. (Reviewer: Andy
Wright)
Frank Dell with Brett Piper,
$30.95 plus p&p, http://www.
booktopia.com.auVictory –
New Zealand
airmen and the
fall of Germany
The announcement of a new
book from this author is always
well-received. Max Lambert
has made a name for himself
over the past decade for beau-
tifully constructed and written
anthologies about New Zealand
airmen in WW2. His latest and,
incidentally, last, is no excep-
tion. The author’s first two
books (Night After Night and
Day After Day) concentrated
solely on the bomber and fight-
er boys respectively. With Vic-
tory, it is the last year of the
war in Europe that is the focus.
New Zealand aircrew flew in
every imaginable role in the
European theatre. Bombers,
fighters, fighter-bombers, air-
sea rescue, anti-shipping and
long-range convoy and U-boat
patrols all feature in this su-
perb book.
It is the Coastal Command
operations that really stand
out. The bomber and fighter
operations are, from this au-
thor, familiar territory and, as
ever, are gathered from inter-
views and first-hand accounts
supported by an excellent bibli-
ography. The same applies to
the Coastal Command tales but
this is the first time Lambert
has, in this series, ventured
into this realm. The result is
pure delight. Yes, Kiwis em-
ployed in U-boat hunting has
been written about before but,
with the Lambert touch, they