STIRLING AT WAR. by Falconer, Jonathan. Foreword by Murray Peden - 1991

Shepperton: Ian Allan, 1991. 128 pp, 4to (11 3/4" H). Profusely illustrated with b&w photographs, drawings. "Weaving his narrative around the detailed eyewitness accounts of aircrews, groundcrews and those who built the Stirling, (the author) reveals the troubled life story of the Shorts' big bomber. Through the eyes of a factory worker at Queen's Island, Belfast, we witness the birth of one of the RAF's first four-engined 'heavies'. We climb the crew ladder, follow the skipper up the long dark fuselage to the cockpit and fly with him and his crew on one of the first Stirling raids over Germany. Lie on your belly in the bomb aimer's position as the skipper dodges flak and fighters at low level: 'We crossed the enemy coast at Wilhelmshaven and were soon flying at low level between two of the Friesian Islands - the guns on each island appeared to be firing horizontally or down at us.' Sit in on a top secret briefing for an SD Stirling crew at Tempsford, and fly with them to a DZ 'somewhere in Occupied Europe' to deliver their 'Joe'. Freeze in the biting East Anglian wind with the groundcrews on dispersals as they try to change an exhaust manifold: 'The Bristol Hercules engines were superb - there was virtually nothing to leak from them. But it was a long way down to the ground if you slipped on the wings.' Fly in the greatest aerial armadas ever seen as you carry crack paratroops to Normandy on the eve of D-Day, or tow a lumbering Horsa glider through flak-peppered skies to Arnhem." Very light wrinkling at top/bottom of spine, tiny dint on bottom edge of rear board. Dust jacket has bee price-clipped, has very light wrinkling and minor wear at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.