Boys, Bombs and Brussels Sprouts - A knees-Up, Wheels-Up Chronicle of WWII

McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1982. 2nd Printing. A very good hardcover in a good jacket with a small tear at the rear. Gift inscription to Sheila from the author dated 1991. "They called them the 'Brylcreem boys' - the young flyers who streamed into England from the first declaration of war, the kids with the jaunty grins and the willingness to take terrible risks. Among them were thousands of young Canadians, many barely out of high school, all delighted to leave behind humdrum lives in dusty, post-Depression Canada for the irresistible chance to learn to fly and help beat the Germans. Doug Harvey was one of them - a nineteen-year-old from Toronto who joined the RCAF, and in 1942 found himself a pilot in the elite Canadian No. 6 Bomber Group. (Here) is the fresh, frank, and often hilarious account of Harvey's experiences overseas. It is an unexpurgated description of what really happened to the group of young Canadian men who suddenly found themselves billeted in freezing Nissen huts in the lush English countryside - surround-ed by an unfamiliar people, whose customs puzzled and delighted them - and charged with the job of bombing Gemany into ruins. It is the chilling story of crews flying through the silent night skies, their lumbering Lancasters loaded with bombs, headed for unseen destinations hundreds of miles away. It is the jubilant story of the boys who made it safely home, mission accomplished, and the heart-breaking story of the thousands who didn't."