"Wartime Diary of an Air Force Photographer" - 24 Squadron SAAF - 1941-42 North Africa

[Edward]

Can anyone comment about this published diary?

I am a little surprised at the cost for a pod book. Perhaps this reflects the printing costs of the photos.

W. Dent Cowen was a photographer in 24 Squadron SAAF. it's certainly an interesting and rare diary for 1941-1942 North Africa. Cover photo is an A-20 Boston bomber in SAAF markings. Worth $60? Not sure.

Wartime Diary of an Air Force Photographer
(Authorhouse UK 2008)
by Dent Cowen. Edited by Denise Raine [daughter]
224 pages - paperback
£39.99
$57.49 US

"This book is the day to day diary with his photographs of a man in the front lines in the Western Desert during 1941/2. Bombed at night and trying to get intelligence photographs printed by day in extreme conditions, sometimes advancing and sometimes retreating having to use what equipment they could make up or scrounge. In the air or on the ground this man tells it as it was.

J. Denton Cowen was born in Barrow in Furness [Cumbria, England] in 1904 and emigrated to South Africa with his family when he was nineteen years old. He married a South African girl and had one daughter, it is this daughter who has printed her father's diary so others can share his experiences."

A rough transcription of one entry from a page fragment posted at an auction website.

Friday, 18th July, 1941
"Collected the final things and messages for our chaps and left Wadi _________ came back to our own camp. Most uninteresting journey as usual along _______ of camps and plenty of S.A. [South African] troops in them.

We arrived back at Fuka about 3:30 pm in the middle of the worst ____ had. The last few miles were done at about four miles per hour as w_______ ahead even the road was obliterated. This then finished our travels of _________ of photo equipment that we needed. This makes a total of about 1,2___ _____________ around Egypt.

We got lots of chemicals on this trip so are now quite nicely fixed in _____ the day was spent unpacking what we had got.

I heard last night was the first air raid free night since they started ____ another rumour is that our squadron was to be changed over to a sub_____ what this means remains to be seen."

https://www.authorhouse.com/en-gb/bo...e-Photographer

Several photos (Maryland, Boston, Stuka) and a few diary entries can be seen at the editor's flickr page.
https://www.flickr.com/people/picks4utoc/

24 Squadron SAAF
"On 5 March 1941 24 Squadron SAAF was formed when No.14 Squadron SAAF and its Maryland bombers were moved from Kenya to Egypt, and renumbered as No.24 Squadron. The squadron then operated alongside No. 39 Squadron RAF as a daytime tactical bomber unit carrying out bombing sorties against targets in the Mediterranean theatre. 24 Squadron was later in the year re-equipped with Bostons." - wikipedia

[edwest2]

Having been in publishing for a long time, cost is based on what anyone thinks the market can bear. For some, the cost may be too high but for others, this is something they won't be able to get elsewhere.