New(ish) book on the Westland Whirlwind fighter

[Seahawk]

Just occasionally I come across an aviation book I was completely unaware existed.  It's even better (and rarer) when it's a good one.

 

Robert Bowater's 263 And 137 Squadrons: The Whirlwind Years is a labour of love devoting 352 pages to telling the operational story of the 114 Whirlwind fighters built (unusually all 114 served operationally at some point) and the 210 pilots who flew them operationally.  It's not a book for technical detail: just 4 pages on the aircraft's development.  It then takes each squadron in turn and runs through operations day by day (134 pages on 263, 54 on 137).  It clearly draws heavily on the ORBs but these have been fleshed out with interviews with surviving pilots and ground crew.   The meat of the book is supported by further chapters (more like appendices) with mini-biographies of the pilots and some groundcrew, awards to pilots, squadron COs, Whirlwind losses, Whirlwind victories, Whirlwind sorties, flying hours, scrambles and patrols, Whirlwind bases, Whirlwind accidents and losses, histories of individual aircraft (no, not just lifted from the Air Britain books) plus the personal accounts of 2 Whirlwind pilots shot down and captured.  The text is awash with serials and serial/code correlations.  There are many photos, many drawn from family archives so possibly not seen in print before.  Support aircraft (Oxford, Magister, Spitfire Vb) are not overlooked.  For modellers there are some useful photos showing nose art.

 

You might think that such a comprehensive carpet-bombing of the subject would result in a turgid heavy read, but, while I suppose the daily records are a bit repetitive (as they were for the pilots involved), for me the structure of moving a lot of information to detailed appendices keeps the whole thing readable.  It's interesting how many of the pilots considered themselves privileged to have flown it  Reading the mini-biographies brought home to me how many of those 210 pilots did not survive the war: sometimes whole pages of pilot photos have each one captioned "Lost xx xxx xx."

 

This is the author's first book and I shall look out for the name.  I hope he finds a better proofreader next time: even in a quick skim though there are irritating typos and aircraft mysteriously changing serial overnight.  But, as you can tell, not enough to dim my enthusiasm.

 

The book was published by Fonthill at £25 in 2013.  I got mine on Friday in mint condition from a second hand shop for £9.95, so it may now be remaindered.  If you come across one, you may find it worth a second glance.

[RJP]

On your recommendation, I just had a peek on Amazon Canada.  The hardcover is listed as Unavailable - "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."  

 

But there is a Kindle edition available for immediate download and the price - ten bucks Canadian - is a bargain.

[Antti_K]

Hello guys,

 

I purchased an eBook for Kindle and it certainly is worth the price. It was nice to see so many so far unpublished photos of the Whirlwinds. Another interesting thing are the pilot's biographies.

 

Cheers,

Antti

[brewerjerry]

Hi

     Yep a good book , but also don't forget Naill''s book 

  and the smaller booklet by alex 

   and the old bingham book & the kookaburra booklet is not bad

 

  Kudos to them all achieved something i never got around to doing  ..... writing a whirlwind book

 

   and imho  all better than that new book that was recently re published 

 

     cheers

        jerry

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Whirlwind-Westlands-Enigmatic-Niall-Corduroy/dp/1781554307

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5996800-westland-whirlwind-mk-i

 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by brewerjerry

[Seahawk]

Yes, with the Kookaburra and Bingham books already in the library, I wasn't feeling a need for another Whirlwind book, which is probably why the 2 titles you mention passed me by.  I also have the 4+ booklet, compiled with plentiful help from Fred Ballam, Westland's archivist, which I think is best on the airframe proper.  But, seeing so much information pulled together and the new photos from family archives, I couldn't resist.  As you say, all better than that new book that was recently republished.

[brewerjerry]

Hi 

     Old age is getting me  ☹️

  i totally forgot about the 4+ book , yep another good one 

     cheers

        jerry