Howard Layton | WWII Flyer - RAF/Comercial Airplane Pilot , Inventor - 22 US Engineering Patents, Published Author/Speaker

Howard Layton

WWII Flyer - RAF/Comercial Airplane Pilot , Inventor - 22 US Engineering Patents, Published Author/Speaker

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$3,000
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Brookfield, CT, US

Howard Layton
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World War II - An Untold Air War Story

THE VICTORY THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF WWII
News reports in the early years of WWII were always about survival. The well prepared Nazi war machine had taken great toll of Allied resources. France had fallen and Hitler was invading one country after another. The ‘Blitz’ had taxed British defense resources to the limit and our aircraft and other munitions production was not keeping up with our losses. Although we had managed to keep the enemy at bay, we had not achieved any significant victories.

In the Middle East, the situation was no better. Hitler’s purpose was to replace Britain as the dominant force in the Mediterranean area and although we had put up a good fight, by early 1942, the renowned General Erwin Rommel was threatening the last bastion of British forces defending the Nile delta and the Egyptian metropolis itself.

By this time, the tragedy of Pearl Harbor had brought the United States into the war, but despite the enormous production resources of the American war machine, its influence on our fortunes had not yet had time to take effect.

It was not until the US defeat of the Japanese in the battle of Midway in June of 1942 marked a turn of events in the Pacific, that there was any heartening news anywhere.

Meanwhile, beginning in December of 1941, the Japanese had invaded everybody in sight: Hong Cong, Manila in the Philippines, Burma, the Solomon’s, Singapore, Rangoon. In Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines, US troops had surrendered to the Japanese, and in the interim, the German Africa Corps had been steadily pushing the British forces back toward Egypt and the Nile delta.

We badly needed a significant victory, and in the closing months of 1942, our desperate need for such a victory was satisfied in spades. Quite suddenly, the resounding triumph of the British victory at El Alamein, followed a few days later by the Anglo American victory at Operation Torch in North West Africa, provided exactly what was needed. The morale of the people at home and in the trenches, and in fact the whole Allied world suddenly soared, and between them, those two victories marked a turning of the tide in the entire war.

As everyone knows, a whole host of excellent books were written about those battles and victories. However they were all army books, almost exclusively about army activities. Curiously, no-one ever thought to write about the vital air-support at El Alamein - without which the victory itself would not have been possible.

And since this airman was there, dropping the bombs and strafing the enemy throughout that campaign, it seemed necessary to fill in that missing piece of war history. That is how and why my book ‘Love and Sand’ came into being.

Howard M. Layton, Flight Lieutenant RAF 117863 retired
Howardlayton@sbcglobal.net

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