Anzac and Aviator : the remarkable story of Sir Ross Smith and the 1919 England to Australia Air Race / Michael Molkentin ; [foreword by Andy Thomas, NASA Astronaut (Retired)].
Material type: TextPublisher: Crows Nest, New South Wales : Allen & Unwin, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: xviii, 406 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cmContent type:- text
- still image
- cartographic image
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781742379197
- 1742379192
- Anzac and Aviator
- Smith, Ross, Sir, 1892-1922
- Australia. Australian Army. Australian Light Horse
- Australia. Australian Army. Australian Flying Corps
- Australia. Australian Army
- London-to-Australia Air Race, 1919
- Air pilots -- Australia -- Biography
- Soldiers -- Australia -- Biography
- Aeronautics -- Flights
- Airplane racing -- Australia -- History
- Airplane racing -- England -- History
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Non-Fiction | Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction | Non-Fiction | 629.13092 SMI | Available | T00826652 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The story of extraordinary Australian, Ross Smith, who rode to war at Gallipoli on horseback and by the end of the war, was one of the most highly awarded fighter pilots.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The story of extraordinary Australian, Ross Smith, who rode to war at Gallipoli on horseback and by the end of the war, was one of the most highly awarded fighter pilots. In the smouldering aftermath of the First World War a young Australian pilot and his crew prepare to attempt the inconceivable: a flight, halfway around the globe, from England to Australia. The 18,000 kilometre odyssey will take 28 days and test these men and their twin-engine biplane to the limit. It is a trans-continental feat that will change the world and bring the air age to Australia. It will also prove to be the culminating act in the extraordinary and tragically brief life of its commander, Captain Sir Ross Smith. Raised on a remote sheep station in the dying days of Australia's colonial frontier, there was little in Ross Smith's childhood that suggested a future as one of the world's great pioneering aviators. He went to war in 1914, serving with the light horse at Gallipoli and in the Sinai before volunteering for the fledgling Australian Flying Corps. In a new dimension of warfare, Ross Smith survived two gruelling years of aerial combat over Palestine to emerge as one of the most skilled and highly decorated Australian pilots of the war. In 1919 he was a pilot on the first ever mission to survey an air route from Cairo to the East Indies, before gaining international fame as the winner of the government's £10,000 prize for leading the first aircrew to fly from England to Australia. His attempt to exceed this by circumnavigating the world by air in 1922 would end in disaster. Drawing on the rich and extensive collection of Ross Smith's private papers, Anzac and Aviator tells, for the first time, the gripping story of a remarkable aviator, the extraordinary times in which he lived and the air race that changed the world.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Foreword (p. ix)
- Preface (p. xiii)
- Maps (p. xvi)
- Text notes (p. xvii)
- Prologue: Brooklands aerodrome, Weybridge, England (p. 1)
- Part 1 'A Determined Boy' 1892-1914
- 1 Mutooroo (p. 7)
- 2 Froggy (p. 12)
- 3 A little more éclat (p. 17)
- 4 Aviemore (p. 23)
- Part 2 'a Britisher With his Back to the Wall' 1914-1916
- 5 The Great War (p. 31)
- 6 Six-bob-a-day tourists (p. 37)
- 7 Anzac (p. 47)
- 8 Life in the trenches (p. 53)
- 9 The August offensive (p. 60)
- 10 Quinn's Post (p. 64)
- 11 Cutting some ice (p. 70)
- 12 Once more out in the desert (p. 76)
- 13 The savage satisfaction of seeing them drop (p. 82)
- Part 3 'A Leader Born' 1916-1918
- 14 The coming thing (p. 93)
- 15 Hadji (p. 102)
- 16 Gaza (p. 110)
- 17 Quite an airman now (p. 120)
- 18 Vengeance is only poor consolation (p. 131)
- 19 Brisfits and baggage (p. 141)
- 20 Biffy and the Bloody Paralyser (p. 155)
- 21 Armageddon (p. 164)
- Part 4 '14,000 Miles Through The Air' 1918-1919
- 22 Preaching the gospel of the RAF (p. 177)
- 23 An awfully good time (p. 190)
- 24 South Asian survey (p. 194)
- 25 The great race (p. 204)
- 26 God' elp all of us! (p. 210)
- 27 Class 5-unfit for all flying (p. 221)
- 28 Crossing the Mediterranean (p. 226)
- 29 Do your best but do nothing foolhardy (p. 235)
- 30 Chasing Poulet (p. 241)
- 31 The Far East (p. 250)
- 32 The bamboo runway (p. 261)
- 33 The supreme hour of our lives (p. 269)
- Part 5 'The Foremost Living Aviator' 1919-1922
- 34 Everyone has gone quite mad (p. 279)
- 35 Fame and fortune (p. 286)
- 36 Leaving an old and trusty friend (p. 292)
- 37 The aristocracy of achievement (p. 297)
- 38 Viking (p. 307)
- 39 Valhalla (p. 316)
- 40 Now he belongs to the empire (p. 320)
- Epilogue (p. 328)
- Acknowledgements (p. 336)
- Note on sources (p. 339)
- Bibliography (p. 344)
- Notes (p. 351)
- Index (p. 398)