The RAF in Camera, 1939 - 1945

Engineering & Transportation

Conyers Nesbit, Roy

Engineering

Sutton Publishing, Limited

In 1942 a Catalina crew of 219 Squadron, based in the Shetlands, was selected to carry out a series of top secret operations, including a flight to the North Pole. They were made at the same time as a Norwegian expedition to Spitzbergen to keep the Germans out of the area. The flights were over 24 hours long and reached the limits of human endurance in the extreme cold. Later, the Squadron provided cover for the Russian convoys. Ernest Schofield was the navigator on the crew and retained the logs. These were extraordinary missions, and on 21 September one ended with a Ju88 attack and tragedy.

Arctic Airmen: The RAF in Spitsbergen and North Russia, 1942

Biographies & Memoirs

Schofield, Ernest

Leaders & Notable People

Spellmount

The Strike Wings: Special Anti-Shipping Squadrons 1942-45

In November 1942 the RAF formed special Strike Wings to attack the heavily defended and seemingly invulnerable convoys that brought Germany's vital supplies of iron ore from Scandinavia down the coast of Europe to feed its war machine. The outcome was a series sea/air battles at close quarters, fought with increasing ferocity until the last days of the war. The Germans tried everything against the Beaufighters and Mosquitos of the Strike Wings fighters - intense flak, parachute mines and even flame-throwers - and the casualties were appallingly heavy on both sides.\nIn this classic account of one of the neglected yet crucial theaters of the air war, Roy Nesbit, himself a survivor of strike aircraft of Coastal Command, describes these complex battles from British and German records, assisted by first-hand accounts from some of the brave airmen who took part. He also analyzes the effects of the tactics employed on the German war economy, with some startling conclusions. The result is a fascinating, clearly written and vivid history of events that were little publicized during the war for reasons of security.\nHis book includes detailed diagrams of some of the key attacks and features some astonishing photographs taken in action.

History

Europe

Pen and Sword Military

Roy Nesbit’s highly illustrated history of Coastal Command’s 217 Squadron – the squadron in which he served – gives a firsthand insight into the hazardous low-level missions the squadron flew against enemy shipping and ports during the Second World War.  He chronicles the squadron’s operations from the outbreak of war when it patrolled in Avro Ansons over the Western Approaches to the English Channel. Then came the most intense period of its wartime career when, flying Beauforts, it concentrated on minelaying and attacks on shipping along the west coast of German-occupied France. It also mounted daring raids on huge U-boat bunkers and other enemy installations.  The story of these dangerous operations, in which many aircraft were lost and airmen were killed, makes up the most memorable section of the narrative. But Roy Nesbit takes the squadron’s story right through to the later years of the war when, after a short and even more dangerous period flying from Malta in order to sink enemy shipping in the Mediterranean, it was based in Ceylon and was re-equipped with Beaufighters for the battle against the Japanese.  In addition to telling the story of the squadron and the men who served in it, the narrative describes the conditions endured by the French people in the ports 217 attacked, and it covers the raids launched against German coastal bases after the squadron had moved to the Far East.  An Expendable Squadron will be absorbing reading for anyone who has a special interest in the history of Coastal Command, in the aircraft 217 Squadron flew, and in the experience of combat flying seventy years ago.

An Expendable Squadron: The Story of 217 Squadron, Coastal Command, 1939-1945

Pen and Sword Aviation

In November 1942, the RAF formed special Strike Wings to attack the heavily defended and seemingly invulnerable convoys that brought Germany’s vital supplies of iron ore from Scandinavia down the coast of Europe to feed its war machine. The outcome was a series sea/air battles at close quarters, fought with increasing ferocity until the last days of the war. The Germans tried everything against the Beaufighters and Mosquitos of the Strike Wings – fighters, intense flak, parachute mines and even flame-throwers – and the casualties were appallingly heavy on both sides. In this classic account of one of the neglected, yet crucial theaters of the air war Roy Nesbit, himself a survivor of strike aircraft of Coastal Command, describes these complex battles from British and German records, assisted by first-hand accounts from some of the brave airmen who took part. He also analyzes the effects of the tactics employed on the German war economy, with some startling conclusions. The result is a fascinating, clearly written and vivid history of events that were little publicized during the war for reasons of security. His book includes detailed diagrams of some of the key attacks and features some astonishing photographs taken in action.

Acclaimed military author Roy Conyers Nesbit has assembled a stunning selection of some 400 photographs and illustrations to tell the story of the great battle for Europe following the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944. The photographs, drawn from the UK and US National Archives and the author's own collection, are underpinned by a concise narrative account of the campaign that took the Western Allies from D-Day, through France and across the Rhine to Germany and victory.

The Battle for Europe

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

The History Press

Roy Nesbit brings to bear all the insight gained from his flying experience and his skill as a aviation historian as he investigates the wartime disappearances he describes in this haunting book. In vivid detail he retells the stories of two of the best-known disappearances - the pioneering aviator and renowned author Antoine Saint-Exupe'ry and the photo-reconnaissance ace Adrian Warburton. But he also explores several less well-known but equally dramatic cases - the crew of a Beaufort torpedo bomber that vanished off the coast of Greece, the loss of a Czech Hurricane pilot in Belgium, and the disappearance of a Lancaster crew during a raid on Germany. In his search to discover the fate of these lost airmen, he reconstructs the circumstances of their final flights and reconstructs their last moments in the air, and he puts together all the scattered pieces of evidence that have come to light since the war to explain their loss. His historical detective work emphasizes the uncertainties and terrible risks that were a routine element in operational flying 60 years ago. The stories make compelling reading.

Reported Missing: Lost Airmen of the Second World War

Military

The struggle of British, Commonwealth and American-Chinese troops against the Japanese in Burma was one of the decisive campaigns of the Second World War. British India was threatened by the Japanese advance, the fate of the British Empire in the East hung in the balance. The tropical climate – dense malarial jungle infested with vermin and swept by monsoon rains – made the fighting, for both sides, a remarkable feat of arms. Yet the war in Burma rarely receives the attention it deserves. Roy C. Nesbit, in this highly illustrated account, traces the entire course of the campaign. In vivid detail he describes the British retreat and humiliation at the hands of the Japanese invaders in 1942. The Japanese were fanatical and trained in jungle warfare, well-equipped and backed with an overwhelming air power. The Allied response was to build up their forces on a massive scale – eventually over 1,300,000 personnel were involved – and to train them to fight in the jungle conditions. Their counteroffensive, launched in 1944, culminated in the battles at Imphal and Kohima which turned the course of the conflict, and the reconquest of Burma was achieved just before the atom bomb was dropped.

Battle for Burma

Asia

The uncertain fates of Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson and Glenn Miller have fascinated readers and aviation historians ever since they disappeared. Even today, more than half a century after their final flights, what happened to them is still the subject of speculation, conspiracy theory and controversy. This has prompted Roy Conyers Nesbit to reinvestigate their stories and to write this perceptive, level-headed and gripping study. Using testimony from new witnesses and hitherto undisclosed public records, he seeks to explain why they were reported ‘missing: believed killed’. He describes why American aviatrix Amelia Earhart vanished in the Pacific on her round-the-world flight in 1937, what caused the death of Britain’s aviation heroine Amy Johnson over the Thames estuary in 1941, and what really killed band-leader Glenn Miller on his doomed flight to Paris in 1944. And he applies the same expert forensic eye to other tragic aerial mysteries of the period including the flying-boat crash that claimed the life of the Duke of Kent in Scotland in 1942. This classic study, issued here for the first time in paperback, will be fascinating reading for students of aviation history and for anyone who is intrigued by tales of flights into the unknown.

Missing: Believed Killed: Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, Glenn Miller and the Duke of Kent

By far the most dangerous of the RAF operations during the Second World War were daylight attacks on enemy shipping, yet little has been written about this aerial campaign and the brave airmen who took part. In particular the intense air-sea battles that were fought in the Mediterranean have been neglected in histories of the war in North Africa and Italy. Roy Nesbit, in this classic account, sets the record straight by describing in vivid detail how a few RAF squadrons were successful in destroying supplies that were vital to the Italian and German armies during the fighting in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. At critical moments during the land battles – during the dramatic advances and retreats that characterized the fighting in the desert – the failure of supplies to get through to Rommel’s Afrika Korps was decisive. But the casualties suffered by the airmen in these low-level attacks were daunting, as were those among the naval and merchant seamen whose vessels were targeted.

The Armed Rovers: Beauforts and Beaufighters over the Mediterranean

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Books by Conyers Nesbit, Roy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Conyers Nesbit, Roy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The RAF in Camera, 1939 - 1945

Arctic Airmen: The RAF in Spitsbergen and North Russia, 1942

The Strike Wings: Special Anti-Shipping Squadrons 1942-45

An Expendable Squadron: The Story of 217 Squadron, Coastal Command, 1939-1945

The Strike Wings: Special Anti-Shipping Squadrons 1942-45

The Battle for Europe

Reported Missing: Lost Airmen of the Second World War

Battle for Burma

Missing: Believed Killed: Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, Glenn Miller and the Duke of Kent

The Armed Rovers: Beauforts and Beaufighters over the Mediterranean