Steve1871 Posted 31 December , 2018 Share Posted 31 December , 2018 Most of my Cross & Cockaid issues, I never had time to read,read a short article of a Zepplin crewman. For the Brit 0400 and the German heavies as well, are there any books by crewmen , either, both sides, pilots, crew members of what it was like to go on those long, slow missions in those planes ?? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted 31 December , 2018 Share Posted 31 December , 2018 Steve I highly recommend Bloody Paralyser by Rob Langham, ISBN 9781781550809. It has lots of first-hand accounts of RNAS and RAF operations in the HP O/100 and O/400, plus the story of the proposed HP V/1500 flights. Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interested Posted 31 December , 2018 Share Posted 31 December , 2018 Hi Steve, I don't know how wide you want to spread your search, but in the book "Imperial Russian Airforce 1898 - 1917" there's a brief history of Russian Bomber development; they claim to have flown the first multi-engined aircraft on 15th March 1913, a World-first. I participated in the research background of a stopwatch developed with RNAS. We discovered that there was close liaison between Russia and Britain (part of the Triple Alliance with France) on bomb-aiming technology. In the winter of 1915 a Russian expert Lieut. Commander Viktor Dibovski came to England to work with Warrant Officer FW Scarff (famed for his Scarff Ring) initially on interrrupter gear and consequently the Scarff-Dibovski interruper gear was successfully (although I believe not very reliably) used by Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters and other aircraft having Vickers .303 guns. Scarff also learned that the Russian multi-engined bombers were achieving high success rates in aerial bombing by using accurate timing and a viewfinder. the RNAS subsequently developed the Equal distance Bombsight (EDB) to be used in conjunction with a Russian-supplied stopwatch, subsequently manufactured in the UK (using a Swiss movement). Scarff made (at least?) two patent applications, 15319/15 "Apparatus for use in dropping bombs from aircraft"; and 7905/16 "Synchronising of machine gun and propellor blades. The stopwatch is rather strange; on the first press of the button the seconds hand proceeds as normal, on the second press is begins running backwards, and on the third press it stops. There is also a rotating bezel incorporating a scribe line. We had the article published in "Clocks" Magazine, and I can provide a few more details if anyone is interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Beale Posted 31 December , 2018 Share Posted 31 December , 2018 There was at least one chapter included in Peter Kilduff's "Germany's First Air Force 1914–18" (Arms & Armour, 1991); for the RFC/RAF one possibility is "Bloody Paralyser" by Rob Langham (Fonthill, 2016), about the Handley Page bombers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMeech Posted 31 December , 2018 Share Posted 31 December , 2018 20 hours ago, Steve1871 said: Most of my Cross & Cockaid issues, I never had time to read,read a short article of a Zepplin crewman. For the Brit 0400 and the German heavies as well, are there any books by crewmen , either, both sides, pilots, crew members of what it was like to go on those long, slow missions in those planes ?? Thanks! Hi Some titles include: 'Bomber Pilot 1916-1918' C P O Bartlett. 'Green Balls - The Adventures of a Night Bomber' Paul Bewsher. 'The Origins of Strategic Bombing' Neville Jones. 'The First of the Many' Alan Morris. 'Independent Force' Keith Rennles. 'Biplanes and Bombsights - British Bombing in World War I' George K Williams. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve1871 Posted 1 January , 2019 Author Share Posted 1 January , 2019 Those books sound great Mike, Thank you very much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaureenE Posted 1 January , 2019 Share Posted 1 January , 2019 (edited) Of the books mentioned in post 5 above, the following are available online "Green Balls," the Adventures of a Night-Bomber by Paul Bewsher 1919 Archive.org Biplanes and Bombsights: British Bombing in World War I by George K Williams 1999. Archive.org. The following book is public domain in the USA, so should be viewable online there, although not in the UK The Annals of 100 Squadron : being a record of the war activities of the pioneer night bombing squadron in France during the period March 1917 to November 11th 1918, including its operations against German towns whilst serving in the independent force of the R.A.F. / by C. Gordon Burge c 1919 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009012122 Cheers Maureen Edited 1 January , 2019 by Maureene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 19 January , 2019 Share Posted 19 January , 2019 Escape by Messimer tells of what American POWS went thru escaping German POW camps-- Yu will be spellbound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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