V-bombs and weathermaps
Subtitle: reminiscences of World War II
By: Brock McElheran.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Montreal; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 199
Subjects: McElheran, Brock, 1918-; World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, German; World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Canadian; Meteorologists -- Canada -- Biography; Great Britain -- History -- Bombardment, 1944-1945
Description: Towards the end of World War II Germany unleashed its weapons of vengeance on the British population - the V-1 flying bomb (a pilotless aircraft) and the V-2 rocket (the precursor of the ballistic missile). Brock McElheran experienced these fearsome weapons first-hand. In V-Bombs and Weathermaps he recounts his own experience of being under attack and pays tribute to the brave civilians in southern England.

He shows that the German assault on the British population was as much a battle as any of the more familiar campaigns on the continent.

A meteorological officer in the Royal Canadian Navy, McElheran studied at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich and served at naval air stations in southern England. During a V-1 attack he was seriously injured when his rooming house in Greenwich was hit. Taken to the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, famous for its pioneering work in plastic surgery, he underwent several operations and months of treatment. Back in Canada, McElheran worked in operations rooms in Ottawa and Halifax.

His memoirs include previously untold stories of naval warfare off Canada's east coast. Using the journal that he kept at the time as his primary source, he combines personal experience, anecdote, and historical fact in this highly readable account of a tense but exhilarating time. Written for the general reader, the mood varies from gripping drama to delightful humour, and the author's personal experiences are placed within the larger historical context of World War II.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-196) and index.