Just read this pleasant news from stone&stone:
"I have been promising for years to rewrite
Fighters over the Desert and
Fighters over Tunisia. At last I have this project underway, but in a rather different format. I am doing a full air coverage (fighters, bombers, recce etc, but still from all sides, as before) covering the Desert war and Tunisia, but going on to include the invasions of Sicily and Italy, the Italian Campaign, the Aegean air fighting, the invasion of Southern France and the operations of the US 15th Air Force.
"I reckon this will take me between 5 and 10 years to complete in several volumes. I shall be joined by a number of co-authors, fellow researchers etc, which will vary volume-to-volume. Those joining 'the team' will include a number of well-known names in aviation history and writing. Of course, if we find the first volume or two are not well-received, then we shall stop. It is intended that format will be rather like that of the recent
2nd Tactical Air Force rewrites—i.e. regular, clear, maps, some colour sideviews of aircraft, and good, clear photos, plus day-by-day listings of claims and losses. The series has been designed to slot with the two Malta books (
Hurricane Years and
Spitfire Year),
Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete 1940-41, and
Dust Clouds in the Middle East, and to an extent with the
Bloody Shambles/Burma books, so that hopefully when we finish there will be a complete coverage of all air war in the Mediterranean and Middle East areas. "I have one additional book well-advanced at present. Many readers will recall that the RCAF 'Ace', Rod Smith, died in very tragic circumstances two or three years ago. He had been working on his autobiography when he died, and his family have asked me to complete it. I have been given all the papers, photos etc, relating both to him and to his brother Jerry (also a quite successful Spitfire pilot on Malta in 1942), and I am close to completing this work at the present time."