[Jim Oxley]

I have both books.

'A Seperate Little War' covers the final 18 months of action in good detail, with several first hand accounts to fill out the production. It provides good lists of notible actions and several fine tables.

'The Strike Wings: Special Anti-shipping Squadrons, 1942-45 ' covers a broader time period, with a much higher percentage of first hand accounts and some excellent photographs, maps and illustrations.

On the whole I prefer The Strike Wings, partly due to it's broader scope. But more so because of it's "feeling".

I find that books written lately ie in the last 10-15 years are excellent for detail and new information. But in many cases (not all) they lack soul. Partly it's due to the lesser number of first hand accounts, which really helps create atmosphere. But more importantly current writers have no experience themselvesof the actions they are writing about, so the books end being a presentation of the actiosn but no soul.

Many authors writing books up to the '80's still had first hand experience of the war - either directly or through just living the period. They capture the feeling of that period far better than current authors do. And this is well illutrated by the above books, where Roy Nesbit serevd in strike aircraft in Coastal Command, whereas Andrew Bird has only studied the period.