Catalina Over Arctic Oceans: Anti-Submarine and Rescue Flying in World War II

by John French, Anthony Dyer (Editor)

John French first took up flying in 1937 with the University of London Air Squadron, and this move was to signal the start of a long and varied career in flight that would see him involved in some of the most iconic wartime exploits of the Twentieth Century. Posted to Gibraltar in the midst of war, he flew sorties in support of the North African landings during Operation Torch, a particularly interesting episode in Second World War history. From here, he was to work on the iconic Catalina – the spectacular water plane, employed to such great effect in an array of military operations in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. His exploits are relayed in vivid, first hand detail, offering fresh insights into this period of history from a man engaged at the heart of the action. Post war exploits flow into accounts of wartime engagement, and there is space too in which to detail John's post-war career behind the Iron Curtain.

Diary entries, edited and complied by his grandson Anthony Dyer, have been lovingly woven together to create a complete narrative which spans a career of such wide variety and achievement to make it perfect material for a book such as this.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[JD]

This is not a very entertaining book and the title is very misleading, as this was what pulled me into reading this. The author served in the RAF during World War 2, and for the first years after himself qualifying to be a pilot, became an instructor and only really in 1942 went on flying boat operations, first in the Mediterranean and then in the Arctic regions, but this covers only a few chapters. The writing is mostly about what the crews got up to at their different bases and what the long flights was like for the author and his crew which becomes a bit monotonous after a while, except for the few enemy encounters there was. The latter chapters of the book covers his post-war career where he did air attaché work for the foreign service in Eastern Europe and his subsequent work in the customs services before retirement. I would not easily recommend this book.