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V-bombs and weathermaps : reminiscences of World War II / Brock McElheran

Author
McElheran, Brock
Published
Montreal [Que.] : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995.
Physical Description
1 online resource (xvii, 199 pages, 9 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, portraits
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Contents
Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and Glossary -- Illustrations -- 1 London on D-Day -- 2 London, the Old Warrior -- 3 Liverpool, Another Veteran -- 4 London's Old Wounds -- 5 Greenwich and Its Civilian Fighters -- 6 Ruins Ancient and Modern -- 7 Where's the Pilot? -- 8 The Doodlebugs Attack in Earnest -- 9 The Battle Continues -- 10 Panic or Nonpanic? -- 11 Just Carry On ... -- 12 Closer and Closer -- 13 Our Private Bomb -- 14 Guinea Pigs and Maggots -- 15 Flashback: From War to War -- 16 Flashback: Conversion to Old Salts and 17 Flashback: Signals from the Sea18 Flashback: Mines, Queens, and Fogs -- 19 Flashback: Pitch, Roll, Pitch -- 20 Gasometers? -- 21 Supersonic Surprises -- 22 An Uproarious Met. Office -- 23 Hot Wars End, Cold War Begins -- 24 Have We Forgotten? -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z
Summary
Towards the end of World War II Germany unleashed its weapons of vengeance on the British population - the V-1 flying bomb (a pilotless aircraft) and the V-2 rocket (the precursor of the ballistic missile). Brock McElheran experienced these fearsome weapons first-hand. In V-Bombs and Weathermaps he recounts his own experience of being under attack and pays tribute to the brave civilians in southern England. He shows that the German assault on the British population was as much a battle as any of the more familiar campaigns on the continent.
A meteorological officer in the Royal Canadian Navy, McElheran studied at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich and served at naval air stations in southern England. During a V-1 attack he was seriously injured when his rooming house in Greenwich was hit. Taken to the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, famous for its pioneering work in plastic surgery, he underwent several operations and months of treatment. Back in Canada, McElheran worked in operations rooms in Ottawa and Halifax. His memoirs include previously untold stories of naval warfare off Canada's east coast. Using the journal that he kept at the time as his primary source, he combines personal experience, anecdote, and historical fact in this highly readable account of a tense but exhilarating time. Written for the general reader, the mood varies from gripping drama to delightful humour, and the author's personal experiences are placed within the larger historical context of World War II.
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ISBN
9780773565548 (electronic bk.)
077356554X (electronic bk.)
0773513302
9780773513303
Digital File Characteristics
data file
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 42851780