Three Volume War Diaries of RAF Pilot Colin Dunford Wood - Iraq, Burma & Germany (1941-1946)

[Edward]

The War Diaries of Colin Dunford Wood
Edited by James Dunford Wood

"A fascinating first-hand account of some of the most significant episodes in World War 2 from Colin Dunford Wood, Indian Army officer turned RAF pilot. Full of self-deprecating humour, often referring to himself as 'Joe Soap', Dunford Wood's three volumes of diaries record adventure, boredom, terror, love and more.

Accompanied by photographs and maps, his adventures begin on the North-West Frontier of British India in January 1939 and continue up until Partition in 1947, though major campaigns in Iraq, Burma and Germany. He served in the British army, the Indian army and, from early 1941, the RAF - though as he records in these diaries, he had to cheat on his eye exam to be accepted.

Over this period he flew Audaxes, Lysanders, Hurricanes and Spitfires, he was shot down in Burma, he flew the last Hurricane out in advance of the marauding Japanese and he was awarded the DFC. He wound up in at the end of the war in Holland in 1945, before being returned to the Indian Army in 1946. Of the 60 Indian Army officers who had originally volunteered to transfer to the RAF during the war, only two survived.

Diaries of this sort are relatively rare, not least because it was forbidden for soldiers and airmen on the front line to record what they saw. They are even rarer in that he also faithfully recorded what he saw with his camera. A fascinating and unique record."

Volume 1: 1939-41: North West Frontier, India, Iraq
‎(Kensington Square - February 23, 2023)
224 pages - paperback (Amazon POD) and digital
£11.99
$14.18
[First published as Big Little Wars: The War Diaries of Colin Dunford Wood, Volume 1 by Independent Publishing Network on 11 November 2020]

"A unique record of two little-known campaigns: the fight against the Fakir of Ipi, the Osama bin Laden of his day, on the North West Frontier of India before WW2; and a rare first-hand account of the Siege and Battle of Habbaniya in Iraq in May 1941, when 39 trainee pilots and their instructors, in antique biplanes, routed 9000 Iraqi troops and Luftwaffe reinforcements to save Britain's Middle East empire.

After graduating from Sandhurst in 1938, Colin Dunford Wood arrived in India to join the Leicestershire Regiment on the North West Frontier in Waziristan, and when war broke out he was posted to the 13th Frontier Force Rifles in Madras. However, he soon got frustrated. His brother Hugh was flying Blenheim bombers in England, while he was stuck in an Indian Army backwater. So in mid-1940 he started to take flying lessons and volunteered to join the RAF.

But there was a problem: his eyesight was less than perfect and he had to fly with specially adapted goggles. However, as he recounts in these pages, he cheated on the eye test and got himself accepted for the 4th Intermediate Flight Training School at RAF Habbaniya, Iraq. As he was later to say - ‘from the frying pan into the fire.’

Because although RAF Habbaniya was considered a quiet posting, far from the front line, it very soon became the front line after Rashid Ali’s coup in Baghdad in April 1941. Suddenly Britain’s oil supply, and its lines of communication, were in dire peril, and all that stood between the Iraqis and their German reinforcements were 39 trainee pilots and their instructors of the flying school in antiquated biplanes. My father was one of them. The story he tells in these pages is astonishing.

This volume ends with the final victory. Of the four Indian army officers, including Colin, who transferred to the RAF - the 'Four Musketeers' - only two would survive the battle."

Volume 2: India, Egypt, China & Burma, 1941-44
(Kensington Square – 8 May 2023)
232 pages - paperback (Amazon POD) and digital
£11.95
$14.95

"Following on from Volume 1, this is a fascinating and unique first-hand account of war in the air with the RAF in Burma and along the Burma Road to China, flying Lysanders and Hurricane Mk IIs alongside the American Volunteer Group, the 'Flying Tigers'. During the chaotic British withdrawal in early 1942, the rapidly depleted RAF units retreated from one makeshift landing ground to another under constant harassment by Japanese Zeros [sic]. A year later he returned to Burma with a detachment of Hurricanes in support of the disastrous Arakan Campaign.

In between being shot down by friendly fire and flying the last Hurricane out of Burma before the advancing Japanese, Colin Dunford Wood details life in India, with a trip to Egypt just before El Alamein to train on the new Hurricanes IIDs.

Colin had an extraordinary war. He was only one of two survivors of 60 Indian army recruits who joined the RAF in WW2 where, despite his poor eyesight and having to cheat on his medical, he went on to fight in four theatres of war: the North-West Frontier, Iraq, Burma and Germany.

These diaries are a vivid portrait of war across several continents and campaigns. Rather than follow the ordered chronology of the tidy historian, who has points to make and theories to prove, the narrative follows the haphazard progress of war on the ground and in the air – encompassing fear, boredom, incompetence, luck, romance, and horror – all interlaced with a self-deprecating humour that kept the man sane."

Volume 3: War to Peace - UK, Germany & Holland, 1944-46
(Kensington Square - forthcoming 15 July 2023)

"Volume 3 of the war diaries sees Colin return to the UK from India and train on the Spitfire XIV, which he flies on reconnaissance and tank busting operations with 2 Squadron to support the Allied forces as they advance into Germany and cross the Rhine in early 1945.

When the war ends, he is posted as Air Movement Officer to The Hague in Holland. His diary records a fascinating and little reported period in post-war Holland in 1945, as the Dutch nation recovers from the Hunger Winter of 44/45 and years of Nazi occupation. The place goes wild.

Colin's eye is also on the next phase of his life, and he is desperate to find a girl to settle down with. Ironically, the only time he is injured is towards the end of 1945, crashing into the back of a tank with no lights on a German autobahn, returning drunk from a party. He is repatriated to a hospital in the UK, where he meets a charming physiotherapist. They are married after a whirlwind romance, only to find out that he is to be posted back to India. The RAF no longer need him, and he is to transfer back to the unit he was with before he joined the RAF, the Frontier Force Rifles, just in time for the horrors of Partition. Since the British Indian Army do not recognise RAF ranks, he returns to the rank he held when he last served, in 1940: 2nd Lieutenant."

Also by James Dunford Wood

The Big Little War: A World War II epic
(Kensington Square - 23 March 2023)
by James Dunford Wood
232 pages - paperback (Amazon POD) and digital

"There are few WW2 epics still to be uncovered. This is one: based on newly discovered war diaries, The Big Little War is the incredible story of how a handful of RAF trainees and their instructors fought overwhelming odds to save Britain’s Middle East empire - and why they were excised from history.

In early 1941 RAF Habbaniya in Iraq was a quiet flying school far from the front line. This all changed when, following a German supported Iraqi coup, 9,000 Iraqi troops marched on the camp to demand its surrender. Habbaniya was virtually defenceless, with reinforcements weeks away across the desert. Left to fend for themselves and faced with the imminent arrival of the Luftwaffe, the camp commandant ordered a pre-emptive strike in their ancient biplanes…

Of all the battles of WW2, there has never been a more underreported campaign with such strategic significance. Had the school failed, Britain’s power in the Middle East would be crippled, the oil fields lost to the Germans, and the course of the war very different.

https://www.jdwoodbooks.com/books

[Edward]

Daniel Ford over at WarBirdForum.com was able to determine that Christopher Shores has Colin Dunford Wood listed as "Plt Off C.D.C. Dunsford-Wood" of 28 Squadron in Bloody Shambles volume 2.