This year has not been kind in allowing me time to write reviews, let alone get some quality reading done. Aircrew Book Review is what led me to the editing work I do now, so I owe it, and its supporters, a lot; consequently, it's certainly not going anywhere. I still harbour hopes of writing a review for publication here, but the end of the year is upon us and there's a second pass of the current editing project to get stuck into. The computer was actually turned off on Christmas Eve, once I'd finished the first, slightly infuriating pass of said project, but if it's not on, I'm not working and if I'm not working, as a freelancer ... Perhaps watch this space for a bit of a 'cheat' should I not have time to write a review; a 'year in review' of new books, and maybe some of the old ones, crossing my desk might at least achieve some worthwhile content.
As I have done in the past, I am pleased to host a guest reviewer, and it is only fair one of Australia's leading present-day aviation historians should write about an Australian aviator who, despite his achievements, continues to be a polarising figure. This is the first volume of the new Don Bennett biography* and it goes a long way towards understanding just who the man was that assumed command of the new Path Finder Force, an initiative that led the way in transforming Bomber Command into an innovative and scarily effective asset for the Allied cause. Bennett's pre-war career featured a plethora of flying boats and there is no better reviewer for such a subject than Phil Vabre, so it's over to him. Andy Wright
Most people with a passing interest in Second World War airpower will be familiar with the name of Air Vice Marshal Donald CT ‘Don’ Bennett CB CBE DSO FRAes, creator and commander of the RAF’s legendary Path Finder Force. What is much less well-known about Bennett are his pre-war achievements in long-distance navigation, and his role as one of the driving forces behind the establishment and early operation of the Atlantic Ferry Organisation. This is the imbalance Ian Campbell addresses in Relentless Skies: The Most Efficient Airman, the first volume of a new two-part biography of Bennett.
This volume covers Bennett’s early life, growing up in Queensland, Australia, and joining the Royal Australian Air Force. After learning to fly, he took the opportunity to move to England on a transfer to the Royal Air Force (RAF) where he flew flying boats and became a navigation instructor. Bennett subsequently joined Imperial Airways where he eventually gained a captaincy on Empire flying boats before taking on the role of pilot of the Mercury component of the Mercury–Maia composite aircraft. As such, Bennett made a world record trans-Atlantic flight in mid-1938, followed by another in Mercury between Dundee, Scotland, and Orange River, South Africa, later the same year. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Don joined a small group to form the Atlantic Ferry Organisation. The purpose was to ferry American-built bombers and patrol aircraft to Britain across the Atlantic; Bennett led the first group personally. After a year of that, he rejoined the RAF and was put in command of No. 77 Squadron and, later, No. 10 Squadron where he was shot down by flak during an attack on the Tirpitz in Norway. He escaped by walking into Sweden and then talking his way into repatriation. You might be forgiven for thinking that is enough for one man, but this is just a brief recounting of the first part of Bennett’s career, and where this volume concludes.
There is no shortage of previous literature on Bennett, including his own controversial memoir, Pathfinder, published in 1958, and no less than three biographies, published in 1985, 1992 and 2018. There are numerous other works touching, in greater or lesser depth, on aspects of Bennett’s career, so can this new biography add anything more to the story?
Bennett’s papers reside in the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra where Ian Campbell is their volunteer curator. This valuable archive of records comprises a mass of never previously available information including such items as Bennett’s original, hand-annotated navigation charts. With this trove of primary source material, as well as a great deal of secondary material on which to draw, Campbell has been able to look afresh at the facts. As he puts it, his approach was to ‘Trust, but verify’. Consequently, in many instances, he has been able to correct or dispel errors and myths about Bennett that have grown and been perpetuated over time (in not a few cases by Bennett himself).
The depth of Campbell’s research is evident from the copious endnotes (this is a book to read with two bookmarks). In trying to verify the facts of Bennett’s career, he has gone to considerable lengths to track down information. As noted above, not only has this exposed inaccuracies in the accepted ‘Bennett story’ but it has also enabled him to fill in the details of many of Bennett’s exploits. For example, Campbell has put together the best account yet of Bennett’s mission in the dark days of June 1940 to fly Polish General Sikorski from England to Bordeaux, France, to persuade the remnants of the Polish General Staff to return with him to England to continue the fight.
There are one or two minor points with which one might quibble. For example, Campbell claims the Cirrus Moth to be ‘obsolete’ when Bennett learned to fly in them in 1930; superseded by later models for sure, but hardly obsolete. There are also a couple of references to ‘Certificate of Accreditation’ when I’m pretty sure he means ‘Certificate of Airworthiness’. These are, no doubt, a product of the author’s lack of broader aviation background but are trivial exceptions in the overall quality of his work.
Campbell’s aim in writing this biography goes further, though, than simply recounting the facts of Bennetts’s career: he hoped to also understand, and paint us a picture, of Bennett the man. In that aim, he succeeds. We come to view Bennett as a man prepared to take calculated risks, when the potential reward was high enough and the risks could be adequately understood and controlled. We see him as a man of considerable intellect and hard work, but one who did not take kindly to those he considered fools, or to bureaucracy. Bennett’s drive to ‘get things done’ often created friction with those around him. He was also a man of considerable personal courage. In providing a deeper, balanced view of Bennett, Campbell has done his legacy a solid turn.
Relentless Skies also includes some very useful appendices including a chronology of Bennett’s life to mid-1942, a list of aircraft types flown, a comprehensive bibliography, and an excellent index divided into People, Places, the Air Force (units, bases, etc.), Aircraft and General. Finally, there is good photographic coverage with decent reproduction grouped in sections throughout the book. Furthermore, unlike many similar works, the aircraft illustrated are not just generic examples: in keeping with the quality of his overall research, Campbell has gone to considerable lengths to obtain images of the specific aircraft flown by Bennett.
Don Bennett deserves to be better remembered for his considerable achievements outside the Pathfinders and Ian Campbell’s book goes a long way toward redressing the balance.
ISBN 978-1-923020-64-1
*I edited Relentless Skies. As much as I wanted to, despite not having the time, it is not my place to write a review for it. All I can say, though, is you won't be disappointed by what is my new benchmark for aircrew biographies.
