Airfields and Landing Grounds of Wales - Ivor Jones

Airfields and Landing Grounds of Wales: West - Ivor Jones
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: The History Press Ltd; First Edition edition (23 Nov 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0752444182
ISBN-13: 978-0752444185


Airfields and Landing Grounds of Wales: North - Ivor Jones
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: The History Press (3 Oct 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0752445103
ISBN-13: 978-0752445106

Airfields and Landing Grounds of Wales: South - Ivor Jones
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: The History Press LTD; 07 edition (1 Jun 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0752442732
ISBN-13: 978-0752442730

Just purchased a copy of Airfields and Landing Grounds of Wales: West - Ivor Jones on Ebay - under a tenner!

Unfortunately I noticed it was Tempus Publishing and immediately put on my proof-readers cap, quickly discovering the first typo in the Contents page itself.

I've since spent an hour or so browsing through it and now confidently declare that it's one of the best books I've seen for quite some time. Very informative and, so far, no further errors found!

It covers the area south-west of the diagonal - Aberporth to Fairwood Common.

The photos, including some good verticals are generally of a high standard, and good sketch plans accompany many of the sites. There were a good number of which I was unaware. Ranges are covered.

Well done Ivor - I now need the other two volumes.

I just paid £5.99 in my local cheepee book shop, I hope he still gets his full cut from the publishers.

I agree that this trilogy is a creditable effort by Ivor. The layout is quirky, but the grouping of airfields by geographic seems to work OK for me. Having spent four years of my life at Brawdy I note a number of small errors in the narrative but overall the coverage is good. There are a number of proof-reading errors. For example, in the Brawdy text it is stated that "No 337 OCU" operated Hunters - but I spent time with the Hunters of No 237 OCU. These are minor trifles but it does point to the need to cross-check between references when doing any serious research.

The latest catalogue of remaindered books from Midland Counties Publications has Ivor's books on Airfields and Landing Grounds of Wales - South, and also - West, for sale at £4.49 each. P+P extra.

Check on www.midlandcountiessuperstore.com - look under bargain books.

Whilst browsing the North book I realised that the Mustang, on page 153, in the chapter on RAF Poulton, didn't look quite right - almost like a Martin Baker MB5. It's definitely a Mustang. Further research shows that the serial given for it, FR408, belonged to a Kingcobra BUT FR409 was an ex USAAF XP51F Mustang - that was a little known light weight version - amazing what turns up and at Poulton of all places!

I also have all three books and found them fascinating, but there is no complete lisitng of all the airfields covered. For example, under Abergavenny, I am not sure how many airfields there are. Can anyone clarify?