I found a great book

C

Crozbone

Guest
Just looking in a second hand book store I came across a rare find. At least I believe it is. For $12.50 I purchased an autographed copy of "Outwitting the Hun" by lieut. Pat O'brian. An American who joined the RFC and after a few successes was shot down, captured and eventually escaped. He made it to Holland after months of running and hiding and then a quick trip to meet the King of England. The book is published March of 1918 so it is interesting to read it with the knowledge the war was not over then.

Has anyone know of this pilot/author?

Scott
(Crozbone)
 
Oh well....

Nice find gimpyguy. I guess I got a good deal on it at $12.50 anyway. The others do not appear to have the authors autograph like mine. Still, it's a good read!

Crozbone
 
50 cents difference. Holy s**t! I remember buying a whole car with 50 cents once. Damn crozbone looks like you got fooled :costumes:
 
I've heard a few of you mention the books about Biggles. I cant find it at any of my local libraries, I think I remember reading here that books are actually frowned upon by politically correct people? I've found a bunch of them on Amazon.com and was wondering which ones are the best for WW1?

-Rooster
 
Hi Crozbone, I think you have a great find there. Very interesting book for one thing but the fact it is autographed is fantastic. Having something that one of our WWI fliers came in contact with and signed is too cool. For me there is a bit of a sense of connecting. May sound flakey but I think I have Rickenbacker autograph and care not about any monetary aspect just the fact that one of my few heroes had this thing for a time and signed it makes it precious. I would love to have a piece of camo fabric from a Fokker DVII. I have a sickness called "collectoritis". I have all sorts of WWI books and memorbilia squirreled away. A heck of a lot of models to make including many dating back to the 1950's. I am way into this crap and enjoy my time with P2 very much. Watch out for the "collectoritis" bug.
 
Rooster89 said:
I've heard a few of you mention the books about Biggles. I cant find it at any of my local libraries, I think I remember reading here that books are actually frowned upon by politically correct people? I've found a bunch of them on Amazon.com and was wondering which ones are the best for WW1?

-Rooster
Click to expand...

Hmmm. "Biggles of 266" I seem to remember being a WWI one. That's the only one I recall offhand.

Edit: There are a few books by John Harris I used to like; I'll take this quote:

I surprised no one mentioned John Harris' Martin Falconer series.There is "The Fledglings", "The Professionals" and "The Victors" to cover WW1 and "The Interceptors" to cover Russia and "The Revolutionaries" to cover Mexio. The first three are excellent as the hero progresses from training in 1915 through to squadron command in 1918. The evolution of tactics and equipment and the maturing of the young hero are all well handled IMHO. A great read which I go back to every now and then.

from http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/books-magazines/21721-any-these-worth-reading-pt2.html to save me the bother of describing them :)
 
Rooster89 said:
I think I remember reading here that books are actually frowned upon by politically correct people?
-Rooster
Click to expand...

That would mean the politically correct crowd, are anti education, good arguement but wrong forum.

I do believe you're in the wrong country, to find Biggles in the library

That was a British Hero
 
Rickitycrate. You hit the nail right on the head. It is the connection that makes it special. The author is an unkown today but how many flyers fought and died and will never get to tell their story.

Crozbone
 
gimpyguy said:
That would mean the politically correct crowd, are anti education, good arguement but wrong forum.

I do believe you're in the wrong country, to find Biggles in the library

That was a British Hero
Click to expand...

OOPS. I dont know if you read it the way I meant it to be or not Gimpy because I accidentally left out a word. It should read- "the books" as in the Biggles series. I know he's a British hero, I thought I'd scope out the library in the off chance they had it. I'd rather own it anyway. Thanks for the tip nwp, I'll check that one out.

-Rooster
 
Rooster,

I think the Biggles books you need to look out for are:

Biggles learns to fly

Biggles: the Camels are coming [republished as Biggles of the fighter squadron]

Biggles and the rescue flight

Biggles of 266

Biggles of the Camel squadron

Also:

Biggles in France [republishes stories from Biggles of 266]

Biggles pioneer air fighter [republishes stories from The Camels are coming and Biggles of the Camel squadron]

Biggles air ace [republished stories]

They may have come out in the US under diferent titles, and are all in a short story format (originally published in magazines). They all draw on the author's own experiences, or on stories told to him by other pilots (some of them fictionalised accounts of anecdotes retold, some of them just tall stories). They are a sort of 'folk literature', I think, of the RFC. The author then went on to write a large number of crime/espionage/flying novels with Biggles as the main character, but it is these short stories that are the real thing :)

Bletchley
 
Thanks a bunch Bletchley. I think I'll get out the old plastic card and buy a couple today.

-Rooster
 
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