Raymond Collishaw in WW2

[ccamfield]

If someone mentions the name Raymond Collishaw and you know something about the airplanes, what would come to mind is probably his performance as a fighter pilot and squadron leader in WW1. I thought of this recently when the War Museum tweeted(!) something about the air war in 1918 with a quote from Collishaw.

What you MIGHT not know, however, is that Raymond Collishaw continued to serve and played a vital role in the air war over Libya in the early part of WW2. He worked closely with Richard O'Connor who was in charge of the ground forces for Operation Compass, and basically laid the groundwork for tactical air support in the war. Unfortunately it seemed that he and RAF officer Tedder (when Tedder arrived) had a strong clash of personalities which led to O'Connor's transfer out of the theatre. He was treated far worse than he deserved.

I found out about this by listening to an episode of Angus Wallace's WW2 Podcast discussion with author Mike Bechthold and then followed up by reading Mike's excellent book, Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940–1941

http://ww2podcast.com/ww2-podcast/46-fl ... n-1940-41/

[Phil]

I've added this book to our Book section,

Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940–1941

[ccamfield]

Oh, nice!

If you are interesting in finding more titles to add to your section (or are just interested), you might take a look at the "Juno Beach and Beyond" podcast which the Juno Beach Centre is now making. I haven't listened to all the episodes, but I learned a lot about arms manufacture and the lives of the women in Scarborough from the episode about Bomb Girls by Barbara Dickson.

[Phil]

Currently we just have Book and Film sections, but a Podcast section might be a good addition.

[ccamfield]

My point was that most episodes of the podcasts are interviews with authors of books about WW2.