The Pitcher and the Well

[Antonio]

The Pitcher and the Well. A Selection of Letters by a New Zealand Airman Written in a German Prison Hospital During the Second World War.
Edited by Squadron Leader J. D. Mcdonald
Published by Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1963

Just come across this book.
Anyone read it or have it in their collection?

[pjw4118]

Yes I have a copy , a great read. I tried to track the subject down and from the description of recc flights n a Hudson , only A Breckon fits and he survived. Strange .

[errolmartyn]

From my For Your Tomorrow - A record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services since 1915 (Volume Three: Biographies & Appendices)

The Pitcher and the Well

Described by distinguished writer Bruce Mason as ‘a work of art of some distinction’ and elsewhere as the author’s ‘own and considerable achievement’, The Pitcher and the Well claims to be a work ‘edited by Squadron Leader J. D. McDonald from the papers of a New Zealand airman’; the ‘papers’ being ‘a selection of letters from a German prison hospital’ written by an RNZAF air observer who ‘died of burns received when his aircraft was shot down.’[1] In reality, the book is for its time a quality piece of ‘faction’. No New Zealand airman matching the description of McDonald’s subject died while a German prisoner of war.[2]

[¹] John Duncan McDonald, MA, MSc (1906-1983). Served as an RNZAF education officer (NZ1484) Feb 1940 to Jun 1943. The 1961 New Zealand edition of the book correctly describes his rank as that of flight lieutenant, whereas the 1962 British edition has ‘promoted’ him to squadron leader.

[²] For a more detailed account and assessment of McDonald’s work see the article ‘Star-farer’ - A Kiwi Airman Foresees his Death?, by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Landfall No.207, May 2004.

Errol