John Kington

Excellent story of little known dangerous WWII air missions, 14 Dec 2000
By An Amazon Customer
This review is from: Even the Birds Were Walking: The Story of Wartime Meteorological Reconnaissance (Hardcover)
This is a well researched account of many little known air operations in WWII, which demanded the unceasing courage and skill of inexperienced aircrew to overcome the joint threats of the enemy and the weather. Many gallant British, Allied and US flyers lost their lives in providing weather data from the Atlantic and from over enemy territory in order to provide RAF and USAAF aircrew with essential route forecasts.

The technical qualifications of the authors lend weight to their account of how long range Meteorological Reconnaissance sorties started from amateurish beginnings at the start of the first year of the war to providing fulltime professional backup to strategic air operations.

The dry historical research is interspersed with personal reminiscences, both chilling and anecdotal, by some of those who took part in these missions. A stark picture is given of long tedious flights, culminating in difficult 'box' climbs which called for concentrated instrument flying when cloud and low temperatures often gave rise to the additional problems of engine and wing icing. Many aircraft failed to return for reasons unknown but were probably lost because of the weather in mid-Atlantic.

Despite shortages of aircrews and suitable aircraft, the book shows that good leadership and team spirit provided the morale which made it possible for the Met Flights and Squadrons to meet the daily challenge of transmitting 'live' the vital weather conditions to the Met Office when 'even when the birds were walking'

The authors have left it 50 years late to write this revealing story. This has inevitably meant that many of the personal accounts have been recorded by elderly ex-aircrew drawing on long forgotten incidents. Their detail is thus a little vague compared with hard facts obtained from the researched wartime records. The wisdom of the powers-that-were at the beginning of the war to make it mandatory for all RAF stations, squadrons and other flying units to maintain daily Air Historical Records is shown to great advantage.

Peter Rackliff, as a founder member of the select Met Air Observer section of the General Duties Branch, has brought his experience to bear in using this historical material to paint a vivid picture of how the 1940 vision of Eric Kraus eventually became the subject of a congratulatory D-Day signal from Winston Churchill to the CO of No 518 Met Squadron RAF.

This book is a must for anyone interested in flying.… (mehr)