FLYING CATALINAS: The Consoldiated PBY Catalina in WWII
Painfully slow and highly vulnerable, the Catalina was nevertheless one of the most important aircraft of the Second World War. Hendrie's book was first published in 1988 but this is a reprint in a new format. He himself served in Hudsons, Sunderlands, and Wellingtons. He describes the amazing service rendered by Catalinas in theatres all over the world, lists the dozens of U-boat kills, and traces the fate of individual Catalinas in RAF and RAAF service. There are plenty of pictures, maps and diagrams. As it was a home-from-home complete with cooking facilities, personally I would have liked a tour of the interior of the aircraft, and an idea of what people actually did during those long, long patrols. Presumably there was rotation of pilots. Did the off-duty pilot have a bunk? - Shropshire Star.