Edward Smithies spent his earliest years surrounded by the aircraft parts, models of fuselages and wings and blueprints that his father brought home from the aircraft factory were he worked. He lived in London for many years and taught history. He also worked on an oral history of the war at sea.
Fascinating ... this collection illuminates corners of the wartime world ... it provides a valuable and often entertaining window * GUARDIAN * The horrors have not been suppressed. Everyone who speaks was very young then. You sense their wonder that they did the things they recall * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *