Towards the end of a long and distinguished career; Sir Fred Rosier was persuaded by his son David to write his autobiography. He did so and the result is an extremely engaging and enlightening account of his life to the end of the Second World War.Starting with his humble beginnings to his time as a prewar fighter pilot on 43 Squadron at Tangmere; seeing action in France with 229 Squadron where he was shot down and burnt; his return as CO of that squadron during the Battle of Britain; taking 229 to the Western Desert; becoming one of two Fighter Wing commanders there; and then being appointed Group Captain Ops in 84 Fighter Group for the invasion; on through Europe; to the demise of Germany. David Rosier and his mother then completed the story up to Sir Fred’s final appointments in the RAF as the last C-in-C of Fighter Command in 1968 and Deputy C-in-C Allied Forces Central Europe in 1973. Sir Fred was an inveterate letter writer; extracts from many of which appear in the book; and with a superb collection of photographs; this long-overdue account will be welcomed by anyone interested in one of the RAF’s major personalities.
#17921304 in Books 1998-12Original language:English #File Name: 1900688093
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Excellent Uniform Guides for Obscure Old ArmiesBy Lee SelkirkI've been war-gaming with miniatures since 1964 and have spent a lifetime researching 18th and 19th century military uniforms. The first two decades required extensive travels to distant libraries to glean fragments and hints of uniform details from a myriad of books in a variety of languages. Then; almost overnight; the hobby caught fire in the 80's and a steady stream of books; plates; and magazines appeared; featuring reprints of just about every old uniform drawing or print ever made! About 90% of this material was laughably inaccurate with captions even getting the armies wrong; let alone the specific unit. Finally; the newbies of the 80's have evolved into fairly respectable 'authorities' and much of the newer publications can be trusted; although the timeless practice of cross-referencing a uniform from alternate sources before picking up a paint brush still applies.Steve Manley's series on the War of the Austrian Succession very nicely covers an exceptionally disjointed; wide-ranging; and rather interesting war that is little-studied today; being heavily overshadowed by the Seven Years War. These smallish guides adequately cover all the units except the most obscure and militarily-irrelevant. Even so; Manley includes details on small units that performed valuable service - a refreshing bonus. The guides are in tabular format by cavalry; infantry; militia; artillery; and specialist units (pontoon train; engineers; garrison troops; etc.). There are infrequent omissions (i.e. belting or vest colours) which keep this series from a 5 star rating; and a few are head-slappers. Overall...? An exceptional value for the money - buy'um all - i am; and i already have access to good information on the armies of this conflict!
