Customer Reviews
Thorough and informative - By: Crikey that was good!, 03 Jun 2008 
Of all the airfield books currently availible this one has to be the best value for money (especially at Amazon!! plug plug). The text covers the usual suspects, relying on documentary evidence where possible. This leaves youin no doubt as to the authenticity of the information presented. What makes this a little different is the fact that the author lumps the entire 20th Century together & manages to pull it off. I have to say the best areas must be the Cold War aspects, something not normally putin context. And as this book hopes to be a reference work it is nicely rounded up with a chapter on current preservation issues. Some typos, as has previously been noted, could have let this down, however seeing as the publishers went bust during its production it is lucky the text made it out at all. The way the subject matter is covered makes the content well worth a read. Did you know we nearly bombed Francein the late 1920s? I did after reading this!
A fresh, new look at an old subject - By: ., 05 Mar 2008 I was worried I might not get this as the release date was December 2007, however it arrived last week. Ok so what can we say about this latestin a long line of books on military airfields. Well the author approaches this from a rather different, possibly unique angle. Rather than laying out the usual `what flew from where' format he has looked at the `why was that airfield built where it was'. Now this might be obvious to many who have an aviation interest, however there are many surprises. In a publication world obsessed with WWII it is good to see other periods receiving equal attention. The author takes us from the first sites pre-WWI around Salisbury Plain, the RNAS Airship station & Home Defence Squadron distribution & Training Depot Stations of the Great War. Covers the first Expansionin the mid-1920s that spawned Abingdon, Bicester & the reopening of Boscombe Down. The Expansions of the 1930s & subsequent sites across the UK for WWII. This is followed by a very useful section on the Cold War including distribution of the V Force & the subsequent hardening of airfields towards the end of the 1970s. The final chapter discusses some of the issues surrounding the preservation of `large landscape features' (typical archaeological speak) such as airfields. This nicely summarised work underway & the sites/stations already protected. There are a large number of photographs embedded within the text including some nice shots of Caldale Airship Station on the Orkneys. The distribution maps worked very well. The Advanced Landing Ground layout map was a little confusing & maybe slightly optimistic at the size presented however I did work it out. There are a few typos, but nothing that detracts from the text. And I was glad to see that the author states clearlyin the intro that this book does not cover every stationin the United Kingdom, but lets face it if he had it would have been the size of a telephone directory!!
So overall does the book do what it says on the tin? Yes. I spent three days reading it & enjoyed every minute. The text across the chapters is underpinned with extracts from various historical sources, all demonstrating the reasons for the airfields being built or distributed across Britain. There are some unusual stories including what happened to Stonehenge Airfield & why Boscombe Down survives today, How we re-equippedin the 1920in case we had to bomb France, the Aircraft Storage Units & their brilliant use of the local topography & some of the more chaotic aspects of the wartime stations. The Cold War structure of warfare & how that drove those airfields retained & rather importantly what is happening nowin the wake of `Options for Change'. Splendid publication with a unique & interesting story to tell, especially since the majority of stations are now closed & the majority have been built over or are about to be so.
