[Francis Howell]

I have spoken to Chris Shores about your comments. Obviously, he is upset that you should have found errors. He advises that the publishers have agreed to an errata page in Vol 3, and he will seek to take account of your points.

However, he does make a few comments. There are people who he refers to - not very politely, perhaps ! - as "one-squadron wonders". i.e. people who spend many years researching a single unit or a single subject, so that they end up knowing virtually what the squadron commander had for breakfast every day of the war. When researching a whole campaign or subject involving many, many units, weeks, etc, it is simply not possible to have the same level of information and knowledge as that particular enthusiast, and to do so would require a book to need perhaps 100 years to complete ! He also notices that such people very rarely seem to actually get around to producing for publication anything on their special interest - perhaps you have Wim, I don't know.

But here, he tells me, are some of the problems of research. For instance, S/Ch Dubois was a French serviceman, and hence does not appear in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which he and Chris Thomas normally uses to check whether such losses were KIA or POW.

Similarly, the official British history of the war states regarding Breskens " In four days 84 Group and 2 Group flew over 1,300 sorties against all types of target in the pocket and on the 11th and 12th Bomber Command dropped 1,150 tons of bombs on the batteries around Breskens and Flushing. The strain proved too great for the enemy...." The 2 Group history simply states "on 11 September a heavy attack was mounted on the Breskens ferry pier and a vehicle park nearby." Neither mention civilian casualties, and such raids are therefore covered in the general statements about the Beveland fighting. Indeed, the most recent book "The Great Mistake" which deals exclusively with the fighting on the Scheldt Estuary and at Breskens makes no mention of this - so how was he supposed to know ? "Many more important operations are omitted"? Ever tried to write within a specified word total ?

As to the typos on place names - the book had an editor at the publishers who missed these - so did the authors. Hands up to guilt on that - but it surely happens. How many manuscripts and page proofs have you edited (always "against the clock") ? Other reviewers do not seem to share your view.

One other point Chris makes for the notice of not just you, but all enthusiasts. Never, but NEVER, make the mistake of thinking that aviation authors write to make money ! The publishers may make some, but returns to authors are just terrible - way below what they were 20 or 30 years ago in real terms. Chris tells me that he can make more money in a week as an experienced real estate consultant than he can in a year from a book. The minimum wage in the UK is about £5 per hour. If writing brings in 20% of this figure, then it has been a good year. "Why do it then ?" I ask him. "For the ego, dear boy, - and to share what we have discovered with that lot out there !" Q.E.D.

Francis Howell