OT: Sopwith Scout 7309

[Dej 17]

I've just finished the above book. Memoirs of the New Zealander, (Sir) Patrick Gordon Taylor.

 

It's not a book I'd heard of before a friend picked it up for me at a car boot. I'm surprised it's not part of the canon of great WW1 aviation memoirs, having, as it does, the same immediacy, intimacy and self-effacing humility as 'No Parachute'. The author flew the Sopwith Pup in No. 66 Squadron from February through July 1917 and his account gives an acute insight into the tactics and attitude of pilots flying a machine they knew to be obsolete against increasingly uneven odds. It's also a testament to the leadership of another great pilot, J. O. Andrews, a contemporary of Lanoe Hawker in No. 24 Sqn.

 

Well worth reading if you can get your hands on it.

[Bullethead 12]

Thanks for the tip but the only copies I can find are all well over $100 :(. The thing was published in 1968 and would, in a perfect world, now be public domain. But the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned European copyright laws will keep it locked up forever.

 

That'w why it's not part of the canon. Being canon implies general availability. Because this book wasn't reprinted, and doubtless never will be, it's doomed to sit forever out of reach thanks to the interminable duration of the stupid copyright laws these days.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Bullethead

[Olham 164]

Thanks for the reminder in the other thread, Dej - I answer here, cause this may be noticed more,

when it's brought up again.

I missed it when you posted it first - maybe the "OT" stopped me.

Why should this book be "off-topic", I wonder?

 

I'll definitely search for it, as your tips about "No Parachute!" and "Open Cockpit" were so spot-on, Sir!

[Dej 17]

I called it 'off topic' because it wasn't on the OFF topic, if you see what I mean Anything that isn't specifically about OFF or WOFF is 'off', IMHO.

[Olham 164]

Ah, I see - but I think you should be a tad more generous there.

After all it is about aviation during the Great War, and that's more on topic

than maybe most of the recent threads (and recent means a year or so...).

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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So ... perhaps you could tag it OOWT/OWWIAT to make it clear to everyone that it is off the topic of OFF and WOFF but on the topic of WWI aviation.  

 

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[Olham 164]

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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What, was that confusing?

 

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[Olham 164]

Naw, it's me usual face! Mmuahahahahaaa!!!

[Dej 17]

Heh... I'm minded now to include below a succinct explanation of the noble game of Cricket... and that's definitely off, 'cos it's NOT on OFF, or WOFF, or WWIF.

 

Cricket, as explained to those without the Empire...

 

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

 

OWZAT!

[Olham 164]

I'm wondering if people develop extremely funny ideas, when they live on an island for a very long time? ...    

...but I like John Cleese's explanation of football (Americans better watch something else - Mmuahahaaa!!!):

 

[Hauksbee 103]

Thanks for the tip but the only copies I can find are all well over $100

Well, I found a better price, but not by much. Amazon has it (used) for $86.72, and a 'collectable' version for $162.

[Olham 164]

Guys, for books, this is a good address:

 

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=taylor&sts=t&tn=Sopwith+Scout+7309

[Hauksbee 103]

Guys, for books, this is a good address:

 

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=taylor&sts=t&tn=Sopwith+Scout+7309

'Checked it out. The lowest price was $41.16, and went up from there.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Those prices are not that bad for a hard-to-find title such as this, and in fact I've located and purchased, (for $40.00 US), a near mint 1st of Taylor's book in it's original dust jacket.  Should be waiting for me when I get home this weekend.  To make things even sweeter I also nabbed copies of "Adventure's A Wench: The Autobiography of Charles Veil as told to Howard Marsh", in a 1934 1st, and a 1936 1st of the English translation of "An Airman Remembers ", by Hans Schröeder.  When it rains it pours.

 

 

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[Dej 17]

Cool beans. I hope you enjoy 'Sopwith Scout 7309'  as much as I did, Lou.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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I am sure I will Dej, your reading recommendations have always been gold.

 

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[Rugbyfan1972 1]

While we are on the subject of WW1 aviation books, I have found an epub version of "open cockpit" on the kobo website this weekend. Now I just need to wait for "No Parachute" and "sopwith Scout 7309" to be released as epubs. Then they can join the following epubs I have already purchased:

Flying Fury

King of Airfighters

Racing Ace

Iron Man

Red Baron - The life and death of an ace

Autumn of Terror

Herman Goering Fighter Pilot

September Evening

Sagittarius Rising

Airway to the East 1918-1920

Aces of Jagdstaffel 17

Mannock: The life and death of Major Edward Mannock

Jasta Boelcke - The history of Jasta 2 1916-1918

RFC HQ 1914-18

Battle of Britain 1917 - The first heavy  bomber raids on England

Albatros DI-DII

Somme Success

Bloody April

Aces Falling

An Aviators field book

Immelmann The Eagle of Lille

Black Fokker Leader - Carl Degelow the first world wars last airfighter knight

Billy Bishop - Top Canadian Flying Ace

No Empty Chairs - the short and heroic lives of the young aviators who fought and died in the first world warThe Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War

Fall of the Red Baron - WW1 aerial tactics and the death of Richthofen

Recollections of the great war in the air

My Golden flying years - from france 1918, through iraq 1920 to the schneider trophy race of 1927

Wooden props and canvas wings - recollections and reflections of a WW1 pilot

Flying Horseman

Cavalry of the clouds - air war over europe 1914-1918

The flatpack bombers - the royal navy and the zeppelin menace

Albert Ball VC

Fire in the sky - the australian flyinc corps in WW1

Sopwith Pup aces of WW1

Julius Buckler - Malaula! The battle cry of jasta 17

British and Empire aces of WW1

Fighting the flying circus

The making of billy bishop - the first world war exploits of billy bishop vc

Surviing the skies - A night bomber pilot in the great war

Raymond Collishaw and the black flight

Hat in the ring - the birth of american air power in the great war

Balloon busting aces of WW1

DH2 v Albatros DI/DII - western front 1916

Open Cockpit

 

I have probably twice this many epubs that relate to WW1 in general.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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That is a great virtual library you have going there RF.  If you haven't grabbed them already you should stop by the 'Scenery and Ground Objects' section of the OFF downloads for the five book sets I put together a few years back.  There are some excellent titles there as well and they are all free as they are in the public domain.

 

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[JFM 18]

I'm wondering if people develop extremely funny ideas, when they live on an island for a very long time? ...  

...but I like John Cleese's explanation of football (Americans better watch something else - Mmuahahaaa!!!):

 

 

Was that comedy? Seriously, i.e, supposed to induce laughter? Probably not, and it didn't, since it's such a tired, worn-out subject. I'm not offended in the slightest but, damn, just another UK guy blathering on for God knows what reason about why Americans call football soccer and football football. 

 

Since this topic has come up time and time again in the last 30 years I've been subjected to it, I'll help the UK guys learn US definitions:

 

Football: The US game Clease accurately described. (I can't watch football anymore, unless I'm in a stadium, because the hype and schlock and fluff are too egregious.) Born from rugby, US football was initially a combo of rugby and soccer rules and the ball could not be picked up by the hands or carried. Thus, "football." The name has stuck despite the sport growing/morphing into what it is today. This can't be that hard to comprehend and remember.

 

Soccer: What US kids play on saturday mornings.

 

Alternate definitions:

 

Football: Game in the UK and many countries that 99% of Americans neither follow nor care about. They use the word "football" for their football; we use the word "football" for our football. Kind of like how they use lift (US=elevator), torch (flashlight), bonnet (hood), bird (chick), windscreen (windshield), etc. Who cares why/that the UK and US use different words? 

 

Soccer: What the US calls the game in the UK and many countries that 99% of Americans neither follow nor care about.

 

Soccer: A professional game in the US that 1% of Amercians follow or care about.

 

There. Class dismissed.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Jim, how do you really feel about this entirely overwrought, overworked, overdone subject?  Don't sugarcoat it.

 

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[Olham 164]

...lift (US=elevator), torch (flashlight), bonnet (hood), bird (chick), windscreen (windshield), etc.

Who cares why/that the UK and US use different words? 

Well, in the case of "football" I had been wondering about the wrong-seeming name (as explained by Cleese).

But now you told us, that it once used to be played ONLY BY FOOT, which is the first time I heard that -

and THEN the name makes sense in a way (although maybe they should have changed the name WITH the rules).

 

Soccer: What the US calls the game in the UK and many countries that 99% of Americans neither follow nor care about.

Yeah, that's ONE thing we can't make the Americans responsible for.

Mmuahahahaaa!!!