Aces, Erks and Backroom Boys
Edward Smithies
306 pages
published in 1990

This book was originally published as War in the Air in 1990, this edition is from 2002. Unfortunately the author died in the meantime. I got this as a present from Sandra, who had found it in her doctor's used books bin for forty pence. (One of the nicer features of English life is the many second hand charity shops and such; makes it easy to find interesting books.)

As indicated in the cover blurb, Aircrew, ground staff and warplane builders remember the Second world War this is a book of oral history, of ordinairy people telling of their experiences in World War II. Not a substitute for a "real" history about the airwars of World War II, but it gives you a far greater feel of what the war was like for those airmen, groundcrew and warplane builders.

Around 300 people were interviewed for this book, from all the various branches of the RAF: Fighter Command, Bomber Command, Coastal Command etc, the groundcrew as well as the workers for airplane manufactories like Supermarine or Hawker. A common thread through all of the histories is how WW II was a time of danger and hard work, but good fun as well, a time of freedom.

I've been reading this a s a bogbook, read in snatches of five minutes while on the toilet, not because it has such soft paper or is that bad, but because it's easy to pick up and read for a while. I've found that with most history books, or even most non fiction books in general, it takes a while to get back in the narrative, to pick up your place. As this book is a collection of peoples' recollections of the War, there's no need to do so and any given story in it can be read in a few minutes or so.