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Bomber Boys

Bomber Boys

The extraordinary adventures of a group of airmen who escaped the Japanese and became the RAAF's celebrated 18th Squadron

by Marianne van Velzen
Paperback
Publication Date: 25/07/2018

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$29.75
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The unknown story of a unique RAAF squadron, its men and its mission to halt the Japanese advance in the Pacific

March 1942. Java is about to fall. An Australian military dispatch rider and a Dutch air force transport pilot embark on a frightening escape from the advancing Japanese that takes them from Bandung to a crash landing just north of Darwin. Both would later join a unique band of flyers determined to strike back at the enemy.

Bomber Boys is the extraordinary and little known story of more than 100 Dutch airmen, stranded in Australia with no country to return to, who were joined by a contingent of Australians to make up the RAAF's No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron. Formed in Canberra in April 1942, the squadron flew operational coastal patrols before eventually being relocated to the secret MacDonald Airfield, north of Pine Creek in the Northern Territory, and eventually Batchelor, near Darwin.

This is, however, more than a story about the 900 bombing raids, reconnaissance missions and attacks on Japanese shipping that the squadron flew in its three years of existence under Australian control. At its heart is a powerful and compelling story of a group of very different men, thrown together for a common purpose, and the strange and sometimes difficult friendships they formed.

ISBN:
9781760528232
9781760528232
Category:
Air forces & warfare
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
25-07-2018
Publisher:
ALLEN & UNWIN
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
320
Dimensions (mm):
198x128mm
Weight:
0.37kg
Marianne van Velzen

Marianne van Velzen was born in The Netherlands in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in the mid-1950s. She migrated back to The Netherlands when she was in her teens. After having worked at various jobs she becomes a journalist and later an editor for one of the prominent Dutch publishers, Wegener Press. She has worked in radio and TV.

She has a life-long interest in Australia. She was involved in the research for The Diamond Dakota Mystery, published by A&U in 2006. In that year she was also involved in the celebration of the 400 years of bilateral relationships between the Dutch and Australia.

In 2007 she worked briefly as a freelance field producer for ABC television for the TV series: Can We Help? In the Netherlands she has translated a number of plays into English. The play of well-known Dutch playwright Ger van Veen, Milk and Honey, was performed in New York at the end of 2008.

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