Title Tattle.........

Hullo ma wee blog,

{No the headings not dyslexia; just my liking for puns.}

I feel like I am getting to grips with the wealth of material in the history of 153 Sqn/end of the war script I'm doing and coming to an understanding of what I want to include and exclude. I don't want it to be completely overwhelmed with technical detail and to be great long posts that ultimately no one is going to enjoy wading through and be put off the next ones so I want to be able to read them in a couple of minutes, but to hopefully create some afterthought. I know I'm coming to better appreciate what these men went through and the circumstances in which they found themselves, so for me, its really interesting.

There is a huge amount of information on the internet, much of it highly technical and dispassionately detailed, so for the more human aspects of their experiences I have turned to a couple of books in my library: Christina Mattingley's 'Battle Order 204' which is a recounting of her husbands experiences of being a Lancaster pilot, based in Lincolnshire, though not at Scampton and coincides chronologically almost exactly with the timeframe I am looking at here and is a marvelously human work based on his diaries. It effectively has brought together for me the bond between the crew which I want touch on in a couple of posts not specific to operations maybe.

The other book is a compilation of accounts by British and Commonwealth flight crew of operations called 'Flying Into the Flames of hell' by Martin H Bowman. It conveys the feelings of terror at being coned by searchlights over targets, the effects of night fighters and carefully nursing damaged aircraft back home.

Both books are written in a gentle unassuming style which is typical of the way which Dad remembered or reminisced certain events. Both books quote liberally from poetry written by the men, a common release from tensions of life threatening situations, and I may also use some of these in later posts too. At least the feeling of muddy waters is receding a bit so hopefully there will be some kind of coherent structure emerge shortly.

The gap in the narrative will help this weekend as the lovely G and I are about to head off for an overnight stay at an old friends,someone that as is often the case I have lost touch with over the last twenty odd years and who's daughter - who I remember only as a toddler - is now a mother twice over herself. Jings that makes me feel OLD!

So I have to get up from the table here in the kitchen and go have a shower and make myself pretty before the two hour drive across the west coast. No doubt, all being well, you get to hear of events in due course.

Got to go - 2 hours may just about be enough time to make myself............


"YES OK, HUN - THE LAPTOPS OFF. I'M SHIFTING MYSELF.........."

Jings!

See you later.


Listening to Cherry Ghost 'Thirst For Romance'
{If Only!!!}