In a first for this blog, I will devote this months space to a review of one of the most memorable Bomber Command books I have had the pleasure of reading. Following The Echoes by Claudia Fox Reppen and Lance Fox is an amazing and very moving journey through history, one that connects dots and digs into mysteries.
As I mentioned in my book The Job To Be Done, I think all history is interconnected on some level, and to appreciate history one has to appreciate all the threads and “echoes” that link times, events, places and people together. Following The Echoes does this in a masterful way. The authors take us on a profound journey in an entertaining way, telling us the story of their grandmother, Gladys, and her first love, a young Canadian airman named Wendell Drew who was a wireless operator on a Lancaster bomber. Drew died in July of 1944 when he and his crew were shot down over the North Sea during a raid on Hamburg. And here we come to one of those connections: Drew and his six comrades died in Lancaster JB707 from 405 Squadron, the very same aircraft that the Coffey crew had been flying on ops before they had been granted a fortnights leave. Flying Officer Townsend and crew took off in JB707 (LQ-M) on the night of July 28 1944 and the crew fell victim to a German night fighter hours later. When the Coffey crew returned from leave, they simply took over a new aircraft and carried on with ops. I am betting that Del was friends with at least some of the Coffey crew, as he was from the same part of rural Saskatchewan as Bob McWhirter (rear gunner) and Malcolm Dingwall (bomb aimer), and they would have had much in common. Gladys, an English girl, and “Del” Drew had been deeply in love and engaged to be married when he was killed. After the war Gladys emigrated to Canada, in part to meet Del’s parents, and ended up marrying a Canadian, raising a family and becoming a beloved grandmother. But she never forgot Del, nor stopped loving him. Her grandchildren took on trying to tell the story after she passed, and what a wondrous job they have done, creating a tale that is part Bomber Command aircrew history, part love story, part detective story, part exploration into grief, love, family, resilience and courage. It is a book that is hard to pigeonhole into a category, but I found it hard to put down, and it has stayed with me. Perhaps it is not surprising that these two young Canadians have penned a loving tribute to their beloved grandmother, but I find it extraordinary that they have have written such a heartfelt and respectful tribute to a young man whom they never met, one who died doing his duty decades before they were even born. Put this one on your reading list, trust me. It is available from Amazon and other online retailers.
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AuthorClint L. Coffey is the author of The Job To Be Done, available now through FriesenPress. Check back soon for new blog posts Archives
January 2025
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