| 156 Squadron Sources of
Research & Reading |
|
I am happy to fulfil reasonable requests for information from any of
these books mentioned below: |
| Type
|
Title
|
Author
|
Rating
|
Comments
|
|
156 Specific |
They Led the Way - The story of Pathfinder Squadron 156 |
Michael P Wadsworth |
***** |
Great Squadron History |
|
156 Specific |
Odd Man Out |
Alex Duke |
*** |
Autobiography of Air Gunner with 156 & 582 Sqn |
|
156 Specific |
Only Birds and Fools |
J Norman Ashton |
**** |
Flight Engineer Lancaster WWII, not a bad read. |
|
156 Specific |
Rear Gunner Pathfinders |
Ron Smith |
**** |
Gritty stuff, no punches pulled here |
|
156 Specific |
Boy Never Came Home |
Eric Thomason |
** |
Composition on F/O Karl Girrbach, a bit of an amateur self publish. |
|
156 Specific |
Photographs of 156 Squadron ORB |
|
***** |
As obtained from National Archive at Kew (over 800 photos so far) |
|
Annotated History |
Claims to Fame - The Lancaster |
Norman Franks |
**** |
Details of Lancasters which have flown more than 100 missions. I found a lot of inaccuracies in this book. |
|
Annotated History |
Pathfinder Force - A History of Group 8 |
Gordon Musgrove |
**** |
Very good indepth analysis of the Group |
|
Annotated History |
Dresden - Tuesday 13 February 1945 |
Frederick Taylor |
**** |
One of the more informed, balanced, and less emotional analyses of the "Dresden Experience" |
|
Annotated History |
Bomber Command |
Max Hastings |
** |
A somewhat critcal history of Bomber Command |
|
Annotated History |
The Peenemunde Raid 17/18 August 1943 |
Martin Middlebrook |
**** |
Well researched & well written book on attack of V1 V2 manufacturing and research site. |
|
Annotated History |
The Nuremburg Raid 30/31 March 1944 |
Martin Middlebrook |
**** |
Well researched & well written book on Bomber Command's most expensive raid of WWII |
|
Annotated History |
The Berlin Raids- RAF Bomber Command Winter 1943 - 44 |
Martin Middlebrook |
**** |
Typical Middlebrook quality on the high cost of raids on Berlin |
|
Annotated History |
The Batte of Hamburg - The Firestorm Raid |
Martin Middlebrook |
**** |
Yes, there were firestorms prior to Dresden. |
|
Annotated History |
Air Battle of the Ruhr |
Alan Cooper |
*** |
Middlebrook style, but not quite the quality, worthwhile though. |
|
Annotated History |
The Other Battle - Luftwaffe Night Aces versus Bomber Command |
Peter Hinchcliffe |
**** |
A rare insight of the "opposition", well researhed and well written. |
|
Biography |
Hamish - The memoirs of G/C T.G. Mahaddie |
T G Mahaddie |
*** |
Amusing and anecdotal autobiography |
|
Biography |
Pathfinder Cranswick (abridged version) |
Michael Cumming |
**** |
Though to be the man who flew the most missions in Bomber Command History |
|
Biography |
Pathfinder |
D C T Bennett |
**** |
AVM D.C.T. Bennett C.B., C.B.E.,D.S.O. founder of Pathfinder group - his autobiography. Very Good. |
|
Biography |
SO MANY - A folio dedicated to all who served with RAF Bomber Command 1939-1945 |
So Few Limited |
*** |
In depth details of 25 members of Bomber Command, representative of the group as a whole. Companion book to SO FEW on the Battle of Britain Pilots. |
|
Biography |
Bomber Boys |
Mel Rolfe |
*** |
Twenty individual mini biographies from Bomber Command |
|
Biography |
No Moon Tonight |
Don Charlwood |
**** |
A group of twenty friends and how they fared, how many survived?, not a lot. |
|
Biography |
Aircrew |
Bruce Lewis |
*** |
Biographies based on crew position, interesting concept, not bad. |
|
Biography |
Luck and a Lancaster |
Harry Yates |
**** |
Well written, interesting biography |
|
Biography |
Pathfinders |
William Anderson |
*** |
Quite good personal insights |
|
Biography |
Bomber Crew - Taking on the Reich |
John Sweetman |
* |
Fairly lightweight attempt at history Bomber force. |
|
Biography |
Bomber Crew |
James Taylor & Martin Davidson |
** |
Recollections base don vrew positions, Channel 4 based a program around this, if that is a recommendation? |
|
Library |
National Archives at Kew, London |
|
***** |
A lifetime of material here, I am afraid. |
|
Photographic History |
Lancaster Squadrons 1942 - 43 |
Jon Lake |
** |
Fairly Lightweight, some good photos |
|
Photographic History |
Lancaster Squadrons 1944 - 45 |
Jon Lake |
** |
Fairly Lightweight, some good photos |
|
Photographic History |
Bomber Command 1939 - 1945 - Photographs form the Imperial War Museum |
Ian Carter |
*** |
Some good Photos |
|
Photographic History |
An Illustrated History of the RAF |
Roy Conyers Nesbit |
*** |
Bit of a Coffee Table book, nice photos. |
|
Photographic History |
The Lancaster Story |
Peter Jacobs |
*** |
Reasonable good history, some good photos. |
|
Photographic History |
Lancaster |
M Garbett & G Goulding |
** |
Lots of photos but generally poor quality printing |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command War Diaries |
Martin Middlebrook & Chris Everitt |
***** |
The book that started me off on all this! Purchased from a second hand bookshop in Henly, this rekindled my idea of recreating my fathers log book. I think I should burn it! |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses of WWII 1939 - 1940 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless - The Researchers Bible for Bomber Command Losses, details each arircaft and their crew as well as anecdotal details of crew members. |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses of WWII 1941 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses of WWII 1942 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses of WWII 1943 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses of WWII 1944 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses of WWII 1945 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses OTU 1940 - 1947 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless |
|
Reference Book |
Bomber Command Losses HCU & Misc 1939 -1947 |
W R Chorley |
***** |
Peerless |
|
Reference Book |
The Distinguished Fling Medal Register for WWII (A- J) |
Ian Tavender |
***** |
Peerless - All DFM Citations in full detail 2000 pages thereof, a remakable work. (Remarkably expensibe though!) |
|
Reference Book |
The Distinguished Fling Medal Register for WWII (K- Z) |
Ian Tavender |
***** |
Peerless- All DFM Citations in full detail 2000 pages thereof, a remakable work. (Remarkably expensibe though!) |
|
Reference Book |
Lancaster - The Story of a Famous Bomber |
Bruce Robertson |
***** |
Details of all Lancaster Serial Numbers built and their final disposition. Great Reference book. |
|
Reference Book |
Footprints in the Sands of Time - RAF Bomber Command POW in Germany 1939-45 |
Oliver Clutton-Brock |
*** |
Claims to list all POWs, but a lot of omissions, even in 156 Sqn. Coincidentally? The omissions are the the same as Chorley, or where an aircraft loss was not incurred. |
|
Reference Book |
Pilots Notes for Lancaster II |
Air Council |
**** |
Owners Manual! |
|
Reference Book |
Air Force Records for Family Historians |
William Spencer |
*** |
Quite useful Reference Booklet by the Public Records Office |
|
Reference Book |
Honor the Air Forces - Honors & Awards to the RAF in WWII |
Michael Maton |
***** |
Great reference book, will save months of searching on London Gazettes, why did I not find it earlier? |
|
Reference Book |
RAF Squadrons |
W/C C. G. Jefford |
*** |
A comprehensive record of the movement and equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their antecedents since 1912 |
|
Web Site |
London Gazette |
|
*** |
Nearly impossible to search on, but the information is all there….. Somewhere. |
|
Web Site |
Commonwealth War Graves Commission |
|
**** |
Great site, but the search engine is sometimes a bit unpredictable. Don't give too much detail up front or you may not find what you are expecting. |
|
Web Site |
Australian War Memorial |
|
**** |
For all things Australian you could do no better. |
|
Web Site |
Google Search |
|
*** |
My stored searches on Google provide me more details on a daily basis, not a lot on 156 Sqn though. |