Popular Post maddmaxx ★ Posted November 28, 2021 Popular Post Share #1 Posted November 28, 2021 The title is "Night Fighter" and it's the story of John Cunningham (wilbur you may know of him in the aviation world) and his navigator/radar operator/gunner CF Rawnsley who flew with the first dedicated night fighter aircraft in WWII. The book was last published in 1956 and I have been unable to purchase a new copy while searching for years. I read it the first time way back then and I've had a urge to read it again. That's the problem with old war biographies, they aren't often popular enough to get a second printing and after a while you simply can't get one. A new version for sale in England is well over $500. I feel fortunate to have obtained a "good" condition used edition for $13. That leaves one book that I lust after, a bio of a British Stewart tank crew in operation Crusader in North Africa. There's a problem there. I don't remember the title. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Posted November 28, 2021 Share #2 Posted November 28, 2021 One real advantage of the internet is making used books more widely available. I recall finding some of my Mom's childhood favorites for her that have long been out of print, and that never would have shown up at a local bookstore. Congrats on your find! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted November 28, 2021 Author Share #3 Posted November 28, 2021 1 minute ago, Kirby said: One real advantage of the internet is making used books more widely available. I recall finding some of my Mom's childhood favorites for her that have long been out of print, and that never would have shown up at a local bookstore. Congrats on your find! It's slightly more difficult in that I can no longer read the small print in a "mass market paperback" which is a very common format for some of these books. Of course almost none of them are available in Kindle form. Many old science fiction books I've been able to find in PDF format from places like Baen Free book library. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donkpow Posted November 28, 2021 Share #4 Posted November 28, 2021 https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=261 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airehead Posted November 28, 2021 Share #5 Posted November 28, 2021 Glad you found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share #6 Posted November 29, 2021 22 minutes ago, donkpow said: https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=261 That's the battle but the book I'm looking for was written from the perspective on one particular tank crew. One line I remember from the book was about the "honey" (british name for the Stewart) tank being so lightly armored that unless you got in the way, a German shot was just as likely to pass clean through the tank as not. I owned a copy and read it sometime in the middle to latter 70's. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donkpow Posted November 29, 2021 Share #7 Posted November 29, 2021 11 hours ago, maddmaxx said: That's the battle but the book I'm looking for was written from the perspective on one particular tank crew. One line I remember from the book was about the "honey" (british name for the Stewart) tank being so lightly armored that unless you got in the way, a German shot was just as likely to pass clean through the tank as not. I owned a copy and read it sometime in the middle to latter 70's. Our public library has a research department. Technically, it's not a "research department" but I can't think of what it is called. You can contact them with any and all information you have and get them to find the book for you. That's the kind of thing they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeman564™ Posted November 29, 2021 Share #8 Posted November 29, 2021 13 hours ago, Kirby said: One real advantage of the internet is making used books more widely available. I recall finding some of my Mom's childhood favorites for her that have long been out of print, and that never would have shown up at a local bookstore. Congrats on your find! I remember going to a used book store Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Share #9 Posted November 29, 2021 No Kindle version? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share #10 Posted November 29, 2021 23 minutes ago, Razors Edge said: No Kindle version? It may come as a surprise to some of you whippersnappers to discover that some writing predates the kindle. There has to be a large enough market for a book to be translated into Kindlese. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Share #11 Posted November 29, 2021 14 hours ago, maddmaxx said: The title is "Night Fighter" Who is the author? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share #12 Posted November 29, 2021 3 minutes ago, Razors Edge said: Who is the author? Cunningham, Rawnsley and Wright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Share #13 Posted November 29, 2021 Just now, maddmaxx said: Cunningham, Rawnsley and Wright. Thanks! When I was a kid, I loved going the school library to check out the WWII (and WWI) air and naval battle books. This is likely far different than those kids books, but I really enjoyed them. Once the day fighters had saved Britain from invasion, it fell to the night fighters to save her cities from destruction. At the beginning, interception by night proved virtually impossible, particularly, as the German bombers carried out their raids in cloudy weather. Soon, however, the navigator was presented with a mysterious little black box, which turned out to be the parent of airborne radar and the key to aerial tactics. This made a major contribution to the war in the skies, first protecting the British cities from the incessant raids of 1940 and later enabling the bombers to carry out their vital operations over Germany. 'Jimmy' Rawnsley, crewed with gunner 'Cats-eyes' Cunningham were among the first to use this new technology when it was introduced to the Blenheim they were flying and went on to become one of the RAF's leading night fighter crews, destroying over 20 enemy aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Wheels Posted November 29, 2021 Share #14 Posted November 29, 2021 Make sure to have it evaluated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Author Share #15 Posted November 29, 2021 3 minutes ago, Square Wheels said: Make sure to have it evaluated. Becca's hot. In a sort of bookish way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Share #16 Posted November 29, 2021 18 hours ago, maddmaxx said: The title is "Night Fighter" and it's the story of John Cunningham (wilbur you may know of him in the aviation world) and his navigator/radar operator/gunner CF Rawnsley who flew with the first dedicated night fighter aircraft in WWII. The book was last published in 1956 and I have been unable to purchase a new copy while searching for years. I read it the first time way back then and I've had a urge to read it again. That's the problem with old war biographies, they aren't often popular enough to get a second printing and after a while you simply can't get one. A new version for sale in England is well over $500. I feel fortunate to have obtained a "good" condition used edition for $13. That leaves one book that I lust after, a bio of a British Stewart tank crew in operation Crusader in North Africa. There's a problem there. I don't remember the title. I'm seeing that book on Amazon. I'm tempted to buy a copy. I just bought a new book on the C-9A Nightingale aircraft. I worked on the model for about 6 years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted November 29, 2021 Share #17 Posted November 29, 2021 56 minutes ago, maddmaxx said: Becca's hot. In a sort of bookish way. I recently saw her on another show besides Pawn Stars. For the life of me, I can't remember which show it was nor the book that she was investigating. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Kosciuszko Posted November 30, 2021 Share #18 Posted November 30, 2021 I just bought this one: Written by one of the very few Japanese survivors, let alone an officer, of the battle. I find it interesting, at times, to get the 'other' perspective. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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