BRING Back My STRINGBAG

Signed on the front end paper by

Lord John Kilbracken

Published by Peter Davies First edition 1979.  227 pages and illustrated with photographs.

Fine condition hardback book in blue boards with a Fine condition clipped dustjacket with a protective cover. The book is also signed by its previous owner, Cdr Eric Hannen (1919-2005) and bears his address label. Hannen served on a battleship HMS Duke of York during WWII and after the war specialised in diving becoming Superintendent of Diving at the Admiralty Experimental Diving Unit at HMS Vernon (Portsmouth).

Practically obsolete even before the war, the robust, inelegant ‘Stringbags’ – the Fleet Air Arm’s Swordfish – unbelievably were still flying against the enemy at the end of it.

This account by John Godley, later Lord Kilbracken, of his five years in the Fleet Air Arm during WWII is light-hearted and vivid. It provides a remarkable picture of personal dealings with the Swordfish, which he asserts ‘seemed to have been left in the war by mistake’. At the same time he reveals what a significant, often dramatic, role they played in the whole course of hostilities.

From cadet to lieutenant commander, he experienced nearly every hazard that could confront the naval aviator enhanced by the special vicissitudes and virtues reserved to the Stringbags. Torpedos, bombing, mine laying, convoy protection with minimal equipment and amenities on one hand; flak, engine failures and ditching mid-Atlantic on the other, were all part of daily life.

John Raymond Godley, 3rd Baron Kilbracken (1920–2006), was a British-born naval aviator, writer, journalist and later Irish-resident peer. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he served with distinction in the Fleet Air Arm during WWII and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945.

After the war he became a foreign correspondent and author, known for his sharp wit and adventurous spirit. Settling at Killegar in County Leitrim, he renounced British citizenship in 1972 in protest at Bloody Sunday. He remained an environmentalist, farmer and outspoken public figure until his death.

An entertaining naval aviation book and neatly signed without dedication.