Military Tuesday : Fighting High – WWII Allied Aviation E-Magazine
A quaterly magazine on Allied military aviation during WWII, Steve Darlow’s Fighting High e-magazine provides a more personal look into the airmen whom served in the Allied air forces, from fighter pilots to the crewmen of the massive bomber armadas over Germany than most general history books offer. Fighting High was given a glowing recommendation on the official Osprey Publishing blog where I first read about this e-magazine.
© Steve Darlow
In each issue, there’s mission reports from the actual pilots and crewmen who participated in them as well as recollections and memories in words and pictures by Allied veterans. I especially liked reading the accounts by the crewmen of two RAF Lancasters’ participation (550 Squadron and 625 Squadron) in the nightime raids over Germany near the end of the war. I first read about these raids years ago from one of the Airplane issues by Orbis Publishing and was quite pleased to read more about these missions.
© Steve Darlow
Another article which I thoroughly enjoyed was the account of pilot Eddie McCann when a Luftwaffe fighter pilot graciously broke off the engagement after noticing the badly shot up wing of his potential opponent, leaving him to nurse his Spitfire back to base.
On top of these first hand accounts of combat, little known salvage and restoration projects are also highlighted, including a look into the efforts by Beech Restoration in restoring and rebuilding WWII aircraft to flying condition. For the book enthusiasts, there’s a fair number of military aviation book reviews in each issue.
© Steve Darlow
There’s also a competition in each issue in which the winner walks away with an book upon guessing the squadron of a WWII aircraft from its serial or insignia. While the deadline for the previous contest is long over, you might want to practice your identification and Googling skills in preparation for the coming contest in next issue available from 15 July 2008 (hey, that’s today! 
).
© Steve Darlow
The last issue showed a four engined bomber with a bold black H in a white circle close to the wingtip (above). Should be relatively easy to deduce the aircraft type since there weren’t too many four engined bombers in service with the Allies during WWII. Identifying the squadron number would be significantly harder since I’ve seen several squadrons with the H letter emblazoned in almost the same area as in the photo.
Download Fighting High.
MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Armed Forces Handbooks (DPRK, PLA)
Osprey Publishing’s Military Art “Advent Calendar”
DIA Military Art Collections
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Am wondering if you would be interested in having my father’s story in your magazine.
He is Fred Jacobsen (dec), and was a F/Sgt WAG in the RAAF in the 22nd Sqn, flying Bostons in PNG–from Nov 42 to Sep 43. His first operational flight was with W/Cmd Charles Learmonth, and later was in the last flight of F/Lt Bill Newton when he was shot down into Salamaua Bay. Newton was captured by the Japs the next day, and eventually beheaded. Later that year he was awarded the V.C.
Last year Lex McAulay compiled a narrative from Fred’s RAAF logbook and his daily diaries, and I have it in a Word attachment of 25 pages.
Clive Jacobsen, Sydney.
ditto.
Hi Clive, you can contact Steve Darlow, the editor of Fighting High at contact@stevedarlow.co.uk.
The official site is at fightinghigh.com.