The Mosquito Log

by Alexander McKee

. with dustjacket, 1988 clean bright copy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Alexander McKee was no "yes-man", he dared to criticise many military, political, economic, media and academic icons and he always kept an open mind. He was fanatical about making his works as accurate as he possibly could. He was ever alert to plain-wrong, biased, distorted or sloppy reports and hidden agendas; wickedly delighting (the more so as a self-educated man) in criticising and exposing assertions that did not fit the evidence. Among his targets were those who tended to emphasise media-image-managment, the accumulation of personal wealth and career progression over both personal integrity and respect for other people's contributions. He gleefully highlighted all the many lapses of integrity that he found. Equally, many established experts, often highly educated people and indeed experts regarding the theoretical aspects of their disciplines, but whom he considered scandalously remiss when they complacently failed to complement such theoretical understanding with practical knowledge as a way to test their theories empirically. Consequently, some of them came in for some harsh criticism on occasion. One gets the impression from his work that some of them appeared reluctant to venture outside the academy at all; out into the "real world": let alone to mix with ordinary people. Implicitly, he urged them to converse with the fishermen, the builders, the soldiers, the doctors, the nurses, the shipwrights and the firemen to glean practical understanding from these practical people, who had to be willing and able to carry out the ultimate tests on their theories to provide demonstably working solutions in order to fulfill their typical working roles. Then he urges such experts in the theory to re-test their theories against the empirically derived knowledge gleaned from their excursions among the working classes, and to do so conjunction with their own senses, out in the "real world": rather than limiting themselves and risking their reputations on the results of thought experiments alone. He dug deep into eye-witness testimonies and spent countless hours searching libraries and museums for the documentary evidence surrounding each his-story. One may find this slightly comical that viewed against the background of established caricaturisations, when the elevated "pillars of wisdom", went "building castles in the air" around about the "ivory towers" and he found strong contradictory "real world" evidence he often lambasted them mercilessly, although it does sometimes seem to be overdone. In contrast, he made the point that some of the sloppy documentary historical works such as that of Sir Robert Davis, that temporarily led his own research astray (and much to his annoyance caused him to repeat untruths in public lectures) while causing the propagation of serious errors until he uncovered them, were nevertheless probably a consequence of the pressures of work, owing to the high quality of the rest of the publication.

Reviews

[Terence Lionel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Book but I felt like a whirlwind

The reader gave the reader a great overview of the story of the Mosquito, one of my favorite planes. I felt he should have given the reader more information about the big raids that the Mosquito had done. He should have given more detail about the night fighting aircraft. I enjoyed the story about how the German tried tactics to shoot down the aircraft. Overall, it was an awesome book.

[Mary-Jane Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy addition to any WW2 aviation library.

An interesting collection of vignettes of the men who flew the Mosquitoes - a few typos got past the proof readers - the best being that the primary anti aircraft gun employed by the Germans was the 8.8mm. I’m sure the Mosquito crew would have preferred an 8.8mm AA gun to the infamous 88mm! Notwithstanding the minor typos, this book is indeed a “page turner”.

[Peter Cathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

great history for Mosquito lovers.

Recommend reading for any Mosquito fans interested in the history and story of the Mosquito. And for those who have only just learned about the wooden wonder or who have ever asked what is the Wooden wonder of WW2.

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tells the story of the development and the versatility of the Mosquito. An informative read.

[wally walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good description of the aircraft and its performance

[Gary Trembath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history

An excellent and well told story of these most versatile aircraft. Particularly interesting to read about their interactions with the Me190 and Me 262.

[Kathleen C. Gaudry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

It was a pleasure to read. I learned more about the Mossie than thought was possible. I would recommend this book to any WW II history buff.

[Ian Hallam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gives the history of the Mosquito throughout it's many variants and has many photos included.