The author provides direct comment from Bomber Command war diaries, the Squadron Operational Record Book and Crew Combat Reports for each mission the Trimble crew flew. Lucky Pommie Bastard, provides an interesting insight, placing an emphasis on the mid-upper gunners, or MUGS as they were known, and their challenges. While many accounts of Bomber Command recount crew experiences, the pilot and his experiences are largely the focus and very few have a focus on the “other” crew members. Of interest, of the 17 aircraft that the Trimble crew flew, only one survived the war. He also provides some very sobering details for each of the missions that the Trimble crew flew, including a copy of each combat report. The author provides details for each of these Australian-led crews. Of the contingent of 10 Australian-led crews that formed in the United Kingdom at the same time, nine perished. Of the three crews that are the focus of the book, only the Trimble crew survived the war. To quote Doug Parry, a former World War II RAAF air gunner in Bomber Command: “The best description of a Bomber Command operation I have read”. It captures the tensions, anxiety and hopes of those committed to the operation. It describes the routine of the station personnel: briefing and planning staff, aircraft maintenance personnel, armourers, transport drivers, aircrew, the conduct of the mission, and the after-flight debriefing and routine. The description of their mission over Brunswick on 14/15 January 1944 captures the effort required to mount a raid. Roy McNaughton and his crew survived 29 bombing missions in No. The book is presented in two parts: the predominant section addresses the training and operational activities of the three Lancaster crews, while the latter part recounts the family’s emigration to Australia and the experiences of the author. Now retired, he is Emeritus Professor of Molecular Sciences at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He served in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for four years from 1971 as an aeronautical engineer cadet. The author, Don McNaughton, was born in Durham, England, and emigrated with his family to Australia inġ961 at the age of nine. It has a focus on the crew in which the author’s father, Roy McNaughton, served as a mid-upper gunner and is referred to as the Trimble crew, the name of the Australian pilot. Lucky Pommie Bastard is the story of three Lancaster bomber crews each with an Australian pilot and a mixed crew of Australians and Britons who trained and flew together. To meet the demands for aircrew to man the bomber force, the Empire Air Training Scheme trained thousands of Australians and other citizens of the British Empire for the air campaign over Europe. Self-published though Ingram Spark 2020 220 pp ISBN 9780645018813 (soft cover) įor the island nation to forge a weapon capable of effectively striking targets in the enemy heartland, it had to create a new and stronger Bomber Command. Forced out of France, Britain faced the Battle of Britain in 1940 followed by the bombing of London and its industrial cities by the Luftwaffe.
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