Aviation Paperbacks 1954 that the British forces ever possessed; for sheer valour it was unsurpassed - its members won 1954 two Victoria Crosses and over 150 other decorations. This book realistically portrays all 54/hoy.1 Hodder & Stoughton the grimness of air warfare, but also tells of Yellow Jacket humorous episodes and of the disappointments Biggles’ Second Case, [illus.] Captain W.E. when theories and plans were upset. It has just Johns been filmed, with Richard Todd and Michael First published April 1948. Fourth impression Redgrave in leading parts; the script is by R.C. January 1952. This edition (reset) 1954 Sherriff. [Hodder and Stoughton, London]. pp. [vi] [7] Paul Brickhill, an Australian born at 8-192 and educated at Sydney, was for Printers: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd, five years a fighter-pilot in the Royal Aylesbury and London Australian Air Force. His aircraft was shot Price: 2/- down over Tunisia in 1943; wounded, he baled Front cover: yellow paper, col. Illus. of out, landed in a minefield, and was captured. unidentified seaplane over a submarine When a prisoner, he was active on “X” escape Rear cover: yellow paper, advert. For Teach organisation. After the War he worked as a Yourself Books journalist in London, New York, and Central Notes: pp. [i-ii] half title and review quotes Europe, and wrote a number of war books which have achieved huge sales. He has now 54/pan.1 Pan GP23 returned to Australia. His Escape - or Die is The Dam Busters, Paul Brickhill, with also a Pan Book. foreword by Marshal of the R.A.F. Lord Illustrations: [between pages 128-129] The Tedder G.C.B., Pan Books Ltd: London War-time leaders of the “Dam Busters” First published 1951 by Evans Bros. Ltd. This Squadron. The Moehne Dam breached. The edition published 1954 by Pan Books Ltd. 9th Moehne Dam five hours after the raid. The printing 1955. pp. [iv] 5-251 [252] + [4] Eder Dam breached. Gibson’s crew tell their adverts. for Pan Books + 8 monochrome story at de-briefing. The moment at which plates. Cheshire dropped incendiary markers on the Printers: Richard Clay and Co. Ltd, Bungay, factory at Limoges. The remarkable bombing Suffolk; bound by a Flexiback Thermoplastic of the Michelin factory. The direct hit on the Binder manufactured by The Book Machinery Saumur Tunnel. The Tirpitz lying capsized in Co. Ltd, London. Tromsö Fjord. A ten-ton “grand slam” being Price: 2/6 taken from the bomb dump. The Bielefeld Front cover: Carl Wilton. Lancaster bombing Viaduct. , C.B.E., F.R.S., D.Sc. the Moehne Dam [2] Original edition: Rear cover: The Dam Busters is certainly one The Dam Busters, by Paul Brickhill, With a of the three or four most enthralling and Foreword by Marshal of the inspiring war books yet published. It is the The Lord Tedder, G.C.B., London, Evans story of 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, Brothers Limited. which was formed early in 1943 for one First published 1951; reprinted (before special job - to breach the Moehne and Eder publication); reprinted October 1951, Dams in Germany. To carry out this operation December 1951, January 1952, April 1952. pp. the squadron was equipped with colossal [x] 11-269 + frontis. + 12 plates. “earthquake bombs” devised by a scientist who Illustrations: as in Pan ed., with additionally: for a long time could obtain no official support Some of the Australians on the Dams raid. for his invention. The overwhelming success Gibson and his crew climbing into G for of the great raid on the dams made the George. Group at the Dams Raid dinner given squadron famous, and it was retained as a unit by A.V. Roe & Co. Micky Martin’s durable and used for other equally perilous missions. It Lancaster. The “Dam Busters” last raid. evolved a new technique of pin-pointing Notes: Pan Books’ The Dam Busters became targets, and dropped bombs accurately on Britain’s first ‘million-seller’ in 1959. tunnels and factories; it knocked out Hitler’s Throughout the 1950s, Penguin’s sales force last and most terrifying secret weapons - the tried to persuade Allen Lane to compete for V.3s, enormous guns in underground shelf space in bookshops with heroic war emplacements that were to have obliterated stories, but he obstinately refused to publish London; it destroyed the battleship Tirpitz in a this ‘populist genre’, maintaining that most Norwegian fjord. 617 Squadron has been people must be tired of war. Only in 1956, described as the most effective unit of its size with the publication of Nicholas Monsarrat’s classic, The Cruel Sea, did he relent. Pan Books Ltd, London. 19.5 x 12.5cm. pp. [Fifty Penguin Years. Harmondsworth: [iv] 5-272 + 8 plates. Index Penguin Books, 1985, p.60] Printers: Collins, Glasgow Review: [Flight, 2 Nov. 1951, p.569] The story Price: £2.95 of ’s dam busters has been told and ISBN: 0 330 28083 X retold in hundreds of thousands of words … Front cover: monochrome photo on wrap- But the story has never been told like this! round pale blue map design Best of the earlier accounts was Gibson’s own Rear cover: synopsis in … But it was written Paul Brickhill was born in 1916 at while the war was still being fought, and Sir Melbourne, Australia, and was educated in Arthur Harris suggested in his foreword that Sydney. He volunteered in 1940 and for five one day it might be possible to tell the other years was a fighter pilot in the Royal side of the story – of the scientists who made Australian Air Force. He flew Hurricane the exploit possible. Paul Brickhill has now bombers at El Alamein, was transferred to been able to cover both aspects, and the result Spitfires, and was shot down in Tunisia in is fantastic that The Dam Busters is as exciting 1943. In a German prisoner-of-war camp he as any good novel. Yet it is also factual, and worked on ‘X’ Escape Organization. After the written with sincerity and skill. … The weapon war he worked as a journalist in Fleet Street, still may not be fully described, but new hints Germany, Austria, Hungary and New York, are given of its extraordinary form and the way and was with the first party of British it worked. … This is a book worthy of the journalists to enter the Russian Zone of story it tells … Germany. His various war books achieved [3] Pan Books reprint 1963 (X207): immediate success. He has now returned to First published 1951 by Evans Bros. Ltd. This Australia. edition published 1954 by Pan Books Ltd. 2nd- 6th printing 1954; 7th-10th printing 1955; 11th- 54/pan.2 Pan X 12th printing 1956; 13th printing 1961; 14th Escape – or Die, Authentic Stories of the printing 1963. [Layout etc as above, except:] R.A.F. Escaping Society, Paul Brickhill, With Price: 3/6 an Introduction by H.E. Bates and Foreword Front cover: new painting signed Austin [??] by Air Chief Marshal Sir Basil Embry, K.B.E., of Lancaster over a burst dam. First Pan Book C.B., D.S.O., D.F.C., A.F.C., Pan Books, to sell over a million copies [in red strap at London foot] First published 1952 by Evans Bros. This Rear cover: [shorter synopsis, and:] Britain’s edition published 1954 by Pan Books Ltd. biggest selling war book … Subsequent printings: 1954 [2-4], 1955, [5-6], [4] Pan Books reprint 1979: 1956 [7], 1957 [8], New ed. 1962, 1962 [10], 25th printing (revised and reset) 1972; 31st 1964 [11], 1965 [12], 1968 [13-14]. 14th printing 1979. With additional material by the printing 1968: 17.5 x 11cm. pp. [vi] 7-189 author. pp. [iv] [5] 6-267 [268] + [4] adverts. [190] [2] adverts. for Pan Books + 8 plates Printers: Cox & Wyman Ltd, London, Printers: Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press), Fakenham and Reading. Bungay, Suffolk. Price: 3/6d. Price: £1.00 SBN: 330 02098 6. ISBN: 0 330 23618 0 Front cover: Col. illus. montage [unsigned] Front and rear covers: New wrap-round col. Rear cover: 700,000 sold in Pan Books alone illus. covers from painting signed ‘Withams’ of Lancasters raiding the Möhne Dam. 54/xfr.1 Les Grandes Réussites Front cover: The epic story of the RAF’s most Françaises famous bomber squadron. L’Aéropostale, Présentée par Madame Rear cover: over one million copies sold in Mermoz, Texte de Georges Clerc, Illustrations Pan de Jacques Ramondot, Les Editions de Minuit [4] Pan Books. Grand Strategy: Les Grandes Réussites Françaises, 3. pp. [iv] Grand Strategy, Paul Brickhill, The Dam 5-191 [192] + 8 plates. Illus., maps. Bibliog. Busters, With foreword by Marshal of the RAF Printers: Imprimerie Habauzit, Aubenas Lord Tedder GCB, with additional material by Price: 285 Frs the author, Pan Books London and Sydney Front cover: blue paper, photo of pilot in First published 1951 by Evans Brothers. First cockpit Pan Books edition published 1954. 25th Rear cover: series advert. printing (revised and reset) 1972. 30th printing 1978. This revised edition published 1983 by SJ. Updated: 9.2.07