WINGS AT SEA
A Fleet Air Arm Observer's War 1940-45

GERARD WOODS

CONWAY MARITIME PRESS
1985

First edition.

This exuberantly written personal account evokes all the comradeship, humour and hazards of flying at sea in obsolete aircraft from the decks of the Royal Navy's most famous carriers and sheds new light on the role of the Fleet Air Arm during World War II.

As a 21-year-old RNVR officer, Gerry Woods joined HMS Ark Royal in late 1940 and flew in the vital strike against the Bismarck, not as a pilot, but as an observer. Subsequently he served aboard HMS Victorious on Russian convoys, and on HMS Formidable in the East Indies, as well as being seconded to the 12th US Air Force in North Africa and Salerno. After commanding a squadron of Barracuda ('Any Old Iron') torpedo bombers in India, he finished the war as Chief Instructor at the Royal Naval Air Station, Inskip, training for the expected invasion of Japan.

24 x 14 cm. 272 pp.

Very good + condition. Hint of age toning to the page edges but otherwise very clean and tidy.