by Christopher Shores
Grub Street, London, 2004
There are some authors whose name alone is sufficient reason to buy a book, and Christopher Shores is surely one of these. Shores is a leader in that great band of British writers who manage professional careers while still cramming in sufficient research and writing time to delight their fans. By profession a chartered surveyor, Shores served in the Royal Air Force in the 1950s, so his writing bears the stamp of authenticity of one who has labored in the ill paid but oh-so-rewarding vineyard of aviation.
Shores seems to delight in the challenge of subjects less covered, and his contributions are all the more valuable because of this. His two volume Bloody Shambles deals with the Southeast Pacific during World War II, and has no counterpart in the market to my knowledge. Similarly unique are his Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete, Malta, the Hurricane Years, and Fledgling Eagles, a complete account of operations during the “Phoney War” and the Norwegian campaign.
His latest work, the monumental Those Other Eagles, is, as its title states, a companion to its well-received predecessor, the two volume Aces High, A Tribute to the Highest Scoring Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Air Forces in World War II.. The latter provides brief histories of each of the pilots who had five total aerial victories, individual or shared.
Those Other Eagles covers the British, Commonwealth and Free European fighter pilots who claimed between two and four victories in aerial combat between 1939 and 1982. This extension from 1945 to 1982 does not add a great percentage of entries, but is all the more valuable because so little is written about this long period of time, which included wars in Malaysia, Korea and the Falklands.
It might be claimed that Those Other Eagles is actually a more important work, for it provides information that only years of research could produce, and which probably will not be available to future researchers simply because the events and personalities will be obscured by the passage of time.
In 671 very well written pages, Shores provides us more than 1,800 entries from Wing Commander Richard James Abrahams to Squadron Leader Jozef Zulikowski. Each entrygives the name rank and serial number, the dates of the victory, the type of aircraft shot down, the type of aircraft being flown by the victor, and often includes the latter’s serial number and/or letter markings. The position of the victory is recorded, as is the victor’s flying unit. And that is just the tabular presentation.
Each entry also gets a biographical entry that is surprising in its detail taking you from the birthday of the pilot, through his education, training, units to which he was assigned, and his wartime record, often including decorations. If he survived-as sadly, so many did not-his post-war career is included.
Now this is not a book you can sit down and read straight through, but it is one you will return to time and again, not only for reference, but simply to dip into the rich detail provided of these vibrant lives. Where else would you learn that a U.S citizen, Buck Feldman, would have received one-half credit for destroying a Ju-88 while flying a Typhoon, then shoot down a slew of V-1s while flying a Tempest, only to round off his total by destroying an Egyptian Macchi MC 205, while flying an Israeli Spitfire in 1949?
A tip on enjoying the book-just flip through and let the names of the victorious types leap out at you-in one single pass I found Whirlwind, Defiant, Gladiator II, Buffalo, Sea Gladiator, Firefly, Beaufighter and Seafire II. You can do the same with victims, and there they are, Me 262, Me 323, MC 202, S 82, Ju 90, Ju 188 with glider bomb, Re 2001, Ar 96, Zeke, Zero, Dinah, Tojo-what fun!
The book is not inexpensive, but it is well worth the price. If you decide you cannot afford it, try to persuade the local library to get it, they won’t be sorry.