Innings of a lifetime

BARKER, Ralph

Collins

That Eternal Summer: Untold Stories from the Battle of Britain

History

Europe

HarperCollins, Publishers

An account of the Royal Flying Corps in France during the First World War, which focuses on the low flying offensive of 25 March 1918 - a rapid onslaught designed to halt the German advance. Features first-hand accounts of the attacks by British pilots.

The Royal Flying Corps in France: From Bloody April 1917 to Final Victory (History and Politics)

Constable and Company Ltd.

<p>'Very low flying is essential. all risks to be taken. Urgent.'Soon after eleven o'clock on the morning of 25 March 1918, with the Allied line crumbling under the weight of Ludendorff's assault, Britain's Third Army, defending the Channel ports, was threatened with extinction. This was the moment when Trenchard's successor Jack Salmond issued his famous Order of the Day.With pilots and observers venturing repeatedly at near-ground level into the vortex of fire above the battlefield, in a desperate effort to stem the German advance, the airborne onslaught was obstinately pursued - in the world of the enemy - 'regardless of consequence.'For the Royal Flying Corps, this was the climactic moment. A week later, on 1 April 1918, along with the Royal Naval Air Service, the Corps was absorbed into the world's first independent air force.In this sequel to The Royal Flying Corps in from Mons to the Somme 1914-16 , the author takes the story from Bloody April 1917 through Third Ypres and Passchendaele to the chaotic retreat from Ludendorff's final offensive, then on to the brink of victory.The exhilaration of combat, the debility of the 'shakes', the grit of observers and gunners, then, the strain of low-level strafing, the bonding of pilot and ground mechanic, the parachute - all these are dealt with in depth.Contemporary letters, diaries and memoirs, culled from many sources, reveal both the fortitude and the frailty of the men, well-known and unknown, who pioneered the aggressive ethos of what was to emerge triumphant in the Royal Air Force.</p>

The Royal Flying Corps in France: from Bloody April 1917 to Final Victory

Constable

Verdict on a lost flyer: the story of Bill Lancaster

Harrap

<p>Remember those obscure South Moluccans who twice hijacked a Dutch train? Here, straightforwardly explained and vividly dramatized, is why it happened, and how. The South Moluccan people in the Netherlands still long for independence and a return to their Indonesian homeland, once part of the Dutch Republic. And so, in 1975, a very young group of fanatical Christian South Moluccans hijacked a Dutch train to demonstrate their commitment to an independent South Moluccan Republic. While the exiles held their captives and negotiated for a jet plane to fly them ""somewhere,"" another group of South Moluccans struck against the Indonesian consulate in Amsterdam and themselves staged a second demonstration. Once some hostages had died, the government felt it could not, under any conditions, allow the hijackers to leave the country. Eventually, they were worn down by various psychological pressures and both sets gave up. Two years passed, and in 1977 two new sets of hijackers staged demonstrations, one group taking over a children's school and the second another train. The new hijackers had learned from the mistakes of the earlier groups, and efforts to break them psychologically were unavailing. So, after three weeks, an actual assault was mounted, with commandos hitting the school and the train at the same moment and slaying most of the young hijackers. The moral issues are still unresolved, and quite likely unresolvable, but the story of this desperate gamble for what is probably a lost cause makes for stirring, provocative reading.</p>

Not here, but in another place

St.Martin's

Spine creased, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Great Mysteries of the Air

Pan/Macmillan

Torpedo Bomber

Ballantine Books

Recounts one of the greatest sea stories of World War II. It is the story of how George Binney, a 39 year-old civilian working in neutral Sweden when Norway was overrun by the Germans in 1940, set about running vital cargoes of Swedish ball-bearings and special steels to Britain through the blockaded Skagerrak, where German air strength was dominant and where the Royal Navy dare not trespass.  Despite Admiralty gloom and in the face of political objections that were overcome by Binney's persistence, five ships carrying a year's supply of valuable materials for the expanding British war industries were successfully sailed to Britain in January 1941.A following attempt was not as successful and ended when six ships were sunk or scuttled. But then came the saga of the Little Ships, the motor gunboats flying the Red Duster that operated out of the Humber to and from the Swedish coast in the winter of 1943/44, defying the strengthened German defenses and the wrath of severe weather.

The blockade busters

Military

Norton

The Schneider Trophy races

Sports & Outdoors

Chatto&Windus

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Books by BARKER, Ralph