Suport Us with an Amazon Book Purchase
2025-10-16
If you click the Support Us here or at the bottom navigation of this site, you get out Support Us page, where we've added a sample list of books with images and links directly to Amazon. When you click that and purchase a book, we get a small commission which goes towards our monthly hosting costs. So any book purchase via our links is greatly appreciated. If you like, review your book and send that to us for posting. Since this is all new, let me know if you do purchase, so I can verify everything is set up with Amazon properly.
I've added some actual suggested books to consider, and I just ordered "Make it Do" myself to add to my own collection. It builds on my current interest in the North African air battles of Nov 1942 to June 1943 as discussed in the last blog article and ORBs with 81 and 242 squadron. But no matter what "Buy on Amazon" link you click, any book you purchase up to 24 hours after clicking helps us.
I've read a few books on the list, including "The Decisive Duel: Spitfire vs 109" which I reviewed early on in the blogs, very informative. Speaking of the opposition, check this video out. Also, "Spitfire: A very British Love Story" as sent to us by former RAF pilot John Nicol is in the collection. I have several others, including "Black Crosses at My Wing Tips" by an RCAF pilot who later became a physician. My father and I had the chance to attend a book launch and reading by Mr. Kennedy, in his later years. How fortunate to have met him. How many Spitfire books do you have, and what story did it come with for you?
Some of the books listed toward the bottom of my sample set are available only as "used" but are still fulfilled by Amazon. I have a few of those in my collection as well, and some of these are quite rare. One of the first and most unusual pilot stories on the site that I added is for an RAF pilot named "Anthony Snell" who after being shot down in Italy, was about to be executed as a spy by a firing squad, when he suddenly stood up (taking a bullet to the shoulder) and ran away. How crazy is that?
Subsequently captured and having convinced his captors he was not a spy, he was sent by train north to be a POW when he and another POW jumped off the train. They then managed their escape disguised as women. His book was entertaining (it wasn't cheap) which also accounted for one romantic episode after another after the war. A musician, having travelled by motorbike across Africa post-war, he and his future wife decided to open a Cabaret on a Caribbean Island, living the rest of his life being a very grateful man. How about that as a story? His page on our site is here.
There are so many more books out there, some quite obscure, some in print still. "Malta Spitfire: The Diary of a Fighter Pilot" by George Beurling, is one of those used books that may still be acquired used. I have not read it yet, however, the story of the Malta siege and air battles has me really wanting to visit and do a repeat of 2019's cycling and storytelling adventure in such a historical location. Perhaps an e-bike this time? Anyone in Malta reading this, please get in touch!
How about North Africa, whose pilots (if they survived) moved on to air battles in Sicily, Italy, and the Croatian coast -- lived a very harrowing period of time in hard scrabble conditions. I look forward to reading more about that campaign. The ORBs (free for those registered at the National Archives UK) provide excellent supplementary information, along with pilot pages on this site.
Happy Reading and thanks for using our links to purchase on Amazon if you do. You don't pay any more for a book if you follow our link, but we get that small commission which greatly helps! Christmas isn't that far away, an easy gift for someone in the family.
Kurt
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