BY ALWYN JAY

ENDURANCE first provides a detailed description of the campaigns in the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay, August 1939 to May 1945. Woven into this are included all combats and attacks involving RAAF aircrew on RAF B-24 Liberators. Little-known photos of convoys, ships in distress and survivors in lifeboats, as well as the B-24 in Coastal Command colours, invoke the common sights of the campaign.

Alwyn Jay explains and illustrates the In-Flight Activities of the crew of a Coastal Command Liberator, as individuals and as part of the crew team: - the navigator was responsible for guiding the pilot from base to the assigned convoy, single ship or patrol area, far out in the Atlantic, often in very bad weather, and then back to base, despite enemy action and more weather; the engineer and pilots continually monitored the engines and fuel consumption; radio and radar were continually in use and operators changed places with the gunners to preserve alertness; the pilots flew the heavy aircraft through storms and icing, day and night, in the attacks and through enemy anti-aircraft fire, sometimes enduring ten or more hours on instruments, before return to base in bad weather. Every flight was a team effort, requiring intense concentration and attention to detail of every man aboard the B-24, for flights of 14 hours or more. This chapter gives the reader a new appreciation of what was required of a Coastal Command crew.

Next, the reader is informed of what was involved in Killing a U-boat, which sometimes involved attacking through a storm, or at night at fifty feet height. Some previously unpublished photos of U-boats under attack provide graphic illustrations. One photograph shows the few survivors of a U-boat clinging to a piece of wreckage, hundreds of miles from any shore and from any hope of rescue.

Other chapters describe the Flying careers of a navigator and a wireless air gunner, with much information taken from the detailed diary of a gunner. Weather North Atlantic gives the reader greater knowledge of the enemy of all who ventured over the Atlantic, and what degree of expertise was required of navigators and pilots to operate effectively over the convoy battlegrounds. A number of recollections of Unusual Flights share the memories of some of the Liberator crews. A remarkable photo of the RMS Queen Mary at the height of a storm shows the almost incredible conditions in which ships and aircraft operated.

Appendices include:

• The Meeting, between pilot and a survivor of a U-boat he sank;
• a Nominal Roll of all known RAAF aircrew of RAF Coastal Command Liberators - some 455 men, of whom 73 were killed, with service number, rank, initials and name, squadron/s, date of arrival and date of departure, and medals awarded;
• Identification of Liberator models;
• Convoy Destination Codes and Main Routes.
• Diagrams illustrate to the reader the techniques of navigating to a distant spot in the Atlantic to meet a convoy, which is itself moving while the aircraft is in flight from base;
• the aiming-off necessary to arrive over a moving U-boat during an attack run;
• a square-search pattern; and radar screens as seen by the Liberator crew.

Hardcover, dustjacket featuring a painting depicting a U-boat kill by Flight Lieutenant Wes Loney RAAF, large format, 224 pages, 86 personal and official photos, diagrams, Liberator cockpit layout.