Dubbo

Is that a book cover or a model box? (Or something else?)

You will need to buy a disk or 2 and it's due out in the fall 2006. Given that the website calls it "fall" I am assuming they mean in North America, so after Sept maybe.

So nice. I'm envious

What kind of an attitude is that?? If you have time to go see Motley Crue, you've got more time than you need. :wink:

The guys from the Commonwealth should know Biggles. Unfortunately our US comrades missed out. For those who don't know http://www.biggles.info/ His flying career was an interesting one..........

I know most of you blokes know of the WW1 "Knights of the Sky" game due to be released at some time during the future. It will be a stand alone game based on the IL-2 engine. http://www.gennadich.com/lang/en/id/69/ My question is how many of you will be interested enough to give it a bash? Having grown up on Biggles and more recently, the WW1 novels by Derek Robinson, I'm chomping at the bit to have a go at this. Look at the detail in the village. Fruit stands. Wow. One of the others has clotheslines with clothes hanging. Pretty cool. So who's gonna have a go? This will be the ultimate T&B, providing it's good.

And let us know how you like it.

Len Deighton - "Bomber" I just finished this one & "Wow!" Deighton does some good work and this is no exception. Based on a fictional bomber squadron and a raid on a fictional town near the Dutch border, the book spans a single 24 hour period on the 31st June 1943. The cast of characters both primary and secondary is huge and the scope of what takes place is simply amazing. He focuses on the RAF Lancaster squadron, the small town of Altgarten, a Ju88 nightfighter squadron, & a German radar station who's commander is from Altgarten. I was laughing out loud at some points and cursing at some characters in others. Interestingly enough, the book does a fine job of splitting your loyalties and you find yourself rooting for each side in turn. And the pacing is great. Once the narrative had the Lancasters taking off for their mission, I was unable to put the book down until the end, some 6 hours later. You have no idea who's going to live or die or when it will take place, which I guess would reflect real life quite well. There have been other books that have portrayed the stress of being a bomber pilot and the horror of being a victim of carpet bombing and have done them quite well. This does a great job of combining both. I have also recently finished "Goodbye Mickey Mouse" by Deighton which I can also recommend. He does his work well.

It's aluminium damnit! Say it right. Looks very interesting ZC

Seeing as most of the non-fiction books have been reviewed by B16Enk, I thought I'd go over to the fiction stuff. One of the most interesting authors I have discovered in the last 2 years is a fellow by the name of Alan Furst. (As recommended to Blairgowrie in another thread) I guess he could be described as a historical espionage writer. All his books I have read take place in war-torn Europe and involve life in occupied countries. They really are something a bit different and really give an impression of what it was like to be living in those countries at the time. (Plus the cover art on this run is very cool) Highly recommended. :thumbup: http://www.alanfurst.net/main.htm Here is his latest. From Alan Furst, whom the New York Times calls "America’s preeminent spy novelist," comes an epic story of romantic love, love of country, and love of freedom—the story of a secret war, fought in elegant hotel bars and first-class railway cars, in the mountains of Spain and the back alleys of Berlin. It is an inspiring, thrilling saga of everyday people, forced by their heart’s passion to fight in the war against tyranny. By 1938, hundreds of Italian intellectuals, lawyers and journalists, university professors and scientists, had escaped Mussolini’s fascist government and fled to Paris. There, amidst the struggles of émigré life, they founded an Italian resistance, with an underground press that smuggled news and encouragement back to Italy. Fighting fascism with typewriters, they produced five hundred and twelve clandestine newspapers. The Foreign Correspondent is their story.

Hint taken.... So one of the books I just recently finished, courtesy of Jensenpark, was "The Last Battle" by Peter Henn. He was a 109 pilot who began flying sorties in Sicily in 1943 until almost the end of the war. Poor title I know, but quite the interesting little book. He describes the problems the 109s had against allied machines (P-47 & 38s) and the problems the Luftwaffe had with supply and upper command. Different from "The First and the Last" (Galland) and "Blonde Knight of Germany" (Hartmann) in that he was unknown and speaks about the war as it immediately touched him and the guys around him, it is a much narrower view than in either of the other books (Both of which are very good reads) The only critisism is that some of the dialogue and descriptions seem a bit wooden but I think that has more to do with the translation than the writing. (In fact the translator didn't bother with a number of german words so I had to look them up on Babelfish afterwards) What struck me the most was that he wasn't really successful as a fighter pilot. As far as I could tell, he never shot anyone down and, something a lot of us can relate to, he crashed quite a few aircraft. One & one half thumbs up.

Nevile Shute. A great writer indeed.(And a really interesting bloke aside) A misplaced pommie who came to Australia and liked it so much he stayed. "Round the Bend" was the flying one, right?

Egads!! :shock: Um...what stick is that?

Indeed it does help. (I see you are well-read) Your reviews are very good too. You should, if it ain't too much trouble, bring them over to this thread to help build volume

Given the subject matter that surrounds this hobby of ours I figured we should start a book/author recommendation thread. You can recommend any books I guess but I figure aviation or war would be a good starting point. You are welcome to review said book or you can tell us why it was good. (Or not) I'll start "The Heroes" by Ronald McKie Non-fiction account of Operations Jaywick & Rimau. Written as a novel, it tells firstly of the mixed Aussie and Brit comamndo raid in Sep 1943 on Singapore Harbour using kayaks and limpet mines - Operation Jaywick. Against incredible odds the raid was successful. 12 months later, using different equipment and planned as a larger operation, Rimau was launched and was a terrible failure. None of the commandoes from Operation Rimau survived and it was only years later (in 1960) when the author was researching the book was their fate confirmed. He was able to piece together the information from interviews with surviving members from Jaywick (6 of those raiders were killed on the 2nd op) and a Japanese interpreter who was stationed at Singapore where the captured members of Rimau were imprisoned. A real eye-opening read. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/020718 ... e&n=283155 Jensenpark has my copy and I'd be willing to loan it out but I must get it back at some point as it is no longer in print

Well...it was free

Indeed it would appear he does.......... http://www.dumpalink.com/media/11447436 ... ster_Bunny[/b]

How much just to sit in the de-skinned fuselage and make airplane noises?

This is a great co-op. And the campaign is even better. Highly recommended.

Nice pics Zeus. And you say it's going to be ready to fly in June right? :wink:

Sheesh! And it seems to only get worse with each generation. There's a interesting novel by a fella called Alan Furst that tells the story of a young Romanian who gets recruited by the NKVD after the Germans occupiers killed his older brother. After training he is sent back in to set up resistance groups. Well written and well researched it certainly opened a window (for me) on an almost unknown slice of WW2. Actually most of Furst's books are very very good.