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Update for January 2016

Welcome back to my blog and all good wishes for 2016. It's been a while since I checked the Amazon reviews for I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II.  I've been delighted to see these reviews posted by readers who've enjoyed the book. Many thanks to all readers and reviewers. If you would like to read some of our other titles please check out Spurwing Ebooks .

Happy Christmas

Thanks for reading my blog in 2015. Hope you have a very Happy Christmas.

New photographs of HMS Spurwing

I was searching the internet the other day for any new information about HMS Spurwing and found these images released into the public domain by the Imperial War Museum. The photograph above is a Fairey Fulmar aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm about to take off from HMS Spurwing on a coastal reconnaissance. This photograph shows two of the naval station's Boulton Paul Defiant aircraft in flight after taking off from HMS Spurwing. On Wednesday 5th April 1944, my dad wrote in his diary: "Went in H.S. 599 on Radar test with Dick doing a W/T [Wireless Telegraphy] test at the same time. Felt some nasty quakes when the pilot went into a corkscrew dive over the harbour but otherwise unimportant. Pleased to write that I am no longer troubled by air sickness." I particularly like this photo because I can imagine my dad up there in the clouds. I don't think this would have been the plane he went in but it gives something tangible to the diary extract. Protect