The RAF Air Sea Rescue Service 1918-1986

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View books by Jon Sutherland, Diane Canwell.

Useful but flawed - Rated
The focus of this book is on the RAF's "navy", the high speed launches and their relatives, from go to whoa. Overall, the book offers a useful addition to the RAF reference set on a topic not all that well covered.

However, the period from 1918 to 1939 is recorded somewhat sketchily. The material on the Middle East and Mediterranean from 1938 to 1942 is even thinner.

While it's true that the RAF remained thin on the ground in the Middle East to late 1941, to suggest that there was "little flying in the Middle East to June 1940" is to ignore, for example, efforts from 1938 to redress the balance in squadron strength and in conversion to more modern aircraft, the Palestine campaign of 1938, and the early (1938, 1939) deployments into the Western Desert as tensions with Italy rose and fell in the final years before war came to the Med.

Further, the wartime activities of HSL 110 in 1940 from Port Said, Alexandria and Mersa Matruh rate a bare (and anonymous) mention, while for some reason, No 230 Squadron RAF with its Sunderlands (at Alexandria from May 1940, and active in the Med and Greece campaigns, eg) is described quite erroneously as "formed in the Middle East in August 1941".

The later WWII period and beyond seem to be better covered, with some engaging detail.

The book has a serviceable index, and an interesting and quite rich collection of personal photos (albeit of the indifferent quality often found under the conditions of the theatres). However, acknowledgements (other than photo attributions), bibliography, and source notes are all omitted.

Overall, an interesting and still useful reference, if perhaps stretched a bit too thin in attempting to expand a personal view of the HSL's war into a complete ASR history.