ISBN: 1-85780-234-9
Pages: 222

Introduction; Acknowledgments; Sources and Bibliography; Glossary of Terms

Appendices: Maps of Bases; Linked and Joined Squadrons; Walking Back

   We're big fans of the aircraft "losses" books from Midland Publishing, including Bomber Command Losses, Coastal Command Losses, and Fighter Command Losses.
   The first volume of the latest series from Midland, Royal Air Force Bomber Losses in the Middle East and Mediterranean, follows the same approach in reporting hundreds of Blenheims, Wellingtons, Bostons, Marylands, Vincents, and other bombers shot down, crashed, or otherwise destroyed in Libya, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. The second volume will pursue RAF bomber losses in the Med through the end of the war.
   The authors divide their book into nine chapters, each with a page or two of introductory text:

• Prelude to War
• The Italian Offensive
• Stroke and Counterstroke
• Greece, Iraq and Syria
• The Axis Repelled
• Rommel's Second Offensive
• The Summer Crisis
• El Alamein
• A Second Front

   Within each chapter, as with the other Midland books on RAF losses, the pages are jammed with day-by-day tabular data detailing exactly which bombers were lost and what happened to them and their crews. Each entry displays the date, the squadron to which the aircraft belonged, the aircraft model, aircraft serial number, type of loss, status of each crewman, and notes about the loss.
   Here's the listing for a typical date:

4 Feb 1941

14 Sqn	Blenheim IV		T2115	Op: Keren
F/O M Mackenzie Sgt D Farrell Sgt W J McConnell			Took off 0800 Port Sudan, one of three detailed to bomb Italian motor transport retreating along the Keren/Asmara road. Attacked in error near the target by Hawker Hurricane, although correct identification signals were given. Badly damaged and crash-landed on return when the undercarriage failed to lower. DBR.
45 Sqn	Blenheim I		L8538	Op: Barce
F/Lt J Paine evd Sgt H C T Holmans + Sgt C P Edwards +			Took off Menastir, one of two detailed to bomb a railway line 16km SW of Barce. Shot down in flames by a CR.42 fighter. F/Lt Paine bailed out and helped by local tribesmen returned to his squadron a few weeks later. The dead are commemorated on the Alamein Memorial.
3 Group Training Flt	Wellington IC		R1385	Delivery Flight
P/O A L T Todd + Sgt T S H Hunter + Sgt G L Little + Sgt R Player + Sgt J Pringle + Sgt N Rowell +			Took off Stradishall for Luqa, but failed to arrive. All are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The crew positions of all but P/O Todd and Sgt Hunter are uncertain.
GRB1	Blenheim IV		T1867	Op: Kufra Oasis
Sgt G Le Calvez FAFL + Lt G Claron FAFL + Sgt Chef F Devin FAFL +			Took off Qunianga, Chad to bomb Italian positions at Kufra Oasis, but force-landed after navigational difficulties. In 1969 a Libyan border patrol discovered the aircraft and its crew, who were still inside the aircraft, and they were later buried in France.

   Don't purchase this book for scintillating prose. Buy it for the splendid compilation of detailed data, each entry a self-contained, thumbnail sketch of a wartime tragedy, almost a short story or a one-act play. Great stuff.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Midland Publishing or their US distributor, Specialty Press.
   Thanks to Specialty for providing this review copy.