Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 3, 2022 22:49:14 GMT 12
I have a copy of the excellent novel Kiwi Strike by Philip Wilson, about an RNZAF PV-1 Ventura crew. I just discovered another RNZAF-related novel by him! This review comes from the Press newspaper dated 23 January 1965.
I wonder if this is also a Ventura-based story, or are they in a Hudson? I'd love to track down a copy.
Pacific Flight By Philip Wilson. Whitcombe and Tombs, and Robert Hale. 192 pp.
The operations of a handful of young men in the R.N.Z.A.F. during the war in the Pacific provides the main interest in this book. The animosity existing between two of them, Jack Struthers and Rex Clarke, over their relationship with Marjorie Wentworth is of less moment, though it gives a thread of continuity to the story. Rex is a celebrated bomber pilot, as well as a notorious lady-killer, and Jack, with whom Marjorie has had a passionate affair before he joined Rex’s squadron on the island of Emirau, is resentful of his authority, and jealous of his possible attraction for Marjorie. The conflict between them comes to a head when their aircraft is shot down on the coast of New Ireland, and they, and two companions, are in danger of being captured by the Japanese. After their rescue and return to New Zealand the swashbuckling Rex pursues Marjorie, whose character, except for her amatory enthusiasm, makes no impact on the reader, though her hysterical tantrums when she is finally faced with a difficult decision are partly atoned for by her ultimate surrender to a sense of duty. The futility of war and the useless sacrifice of young lives it entails are stressed in these pages, but the writing is homespun, and the characters rather nebulous, without the rough wit and humour which such young men usually display in the face of danger and discomfort.
The operations of a handful of young men in the R.N.Z.A.F. during the war in the Pacific provides the main interest in this book. The animosity existing between two of them, Jack Struthers and Rex Clarke, over their relationship with Marjorie Wentworth is of less moment, though it gives a thread of continuity to the story. Rex is a celebrated bomber pilot, as well as a notorious lady-killer, and Jack, with whom Marjorie has had a passionate affair before he joined Rex’s squadron on the island of Emirau, is resentful of his authority, and jealous of his possible attraction for Marjorie. The conflict between them comes to a head when their aircraft is shot down on the coast of New Ireland, and they, and two companions, are in danger of being captured by the Japanese. After their rescue and return to New Zealand the swashbuckling Rex pursues Marjorie, whose character, except for her amatory enthusiasm, makes no impact on the reader, though her hysterical tantrums when she is finally faced with a difficult decision are partly atoned for by her ultimate surrender to a sense of duty. The futility of war and the useless sacrifice of young lives it entails are stressed in these pages, but the writing is homespun, and the characters rather nebulous, without the rough wit and humour which such young men usually display in the face of danger and discomfort.
