|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 4, 2006 23:49:05 GMT 12
Following on from a previous post I made about this 1940 NZ-publication on the Battle of Britain, here is the set scanned. If you missed the earlier posts, this was, it seems, a week-by-week collector series of four page 'folders' that were put out in 1940 by the Self Help grocery store chain, for young boys to collect. It has an association with the Jimmie Allen Adventure Hour on NZ radio - Jimmie being a boy pilot in an adventure series which was made in the USA but popular here from what I can work out. This publication is a remarkable piece of history in terms of childhood culture of the 1940's, wartime nostalgia, retail history and radio history. It is also one of the earliest publications surely about the Battle of Britain ever, particularly in NZ. Here's the cover to start with
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 4, 2006 23:59:18 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 0:07:00 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 0:16:47 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 0:26:15 GMT 12
Can you imagine what it must have been like for boys of 10 or 12 or 14 years old to be collecting these great folders each week? The anxious wait for a week to roll by, the excitement of the knew edition coming out, and the sheer wonder as he read all about the RAF which was then fighting for very survival in the skies over England. I'd love to hear some of the Jimmie Allen radio shows from that era and see if the Manual of the Royal Air Force was plugged on air - I'm sure it must have been. Folder 4
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 0:35:44 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 0:44:53 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 0:49:44 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 1:03:05 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Peter Lewis on Aug 5, 2006 9:20:02 GMT 12
Interesting stuff - however, no mention there of New Zealand's terror weapon, the Vickers Vildebeest!
|
|
|
Post by Bruce on Aug 5, 2006 12:49:03 GMT 12
Definitely a certain amount of propaganda there! The comments about the effectiveness of the Boulton Paul Defiant demonstrate the publicity cover up of an aircraft that actually performed dismally from the moment it entered service. there is also no hint at the RAF's dislike for the Bell Airacobra (which was not a bad aircraft in general, just not suited for what the RAF wanted to do with it). Likewise the Curtiss Hawk "which has proved itself against the best German aircraft during the first year of the war (the limited number of French hawks sucessfully delivered were either destroyed during the battle of France or surrendered into Vichy control without encountering German '109s) The opening Paragraph of Folder 8 is great! an excellent social commentary of the time. Must get mother to get me some De luxe Fruit Extract!
|
|
|
Post by flyjoe180 on Aug 5, 2006 13:05:39 GMT 12
I love the artwork, great pictures with very descriptive paragraphs. Interesting are some of the comments made in 'The Enemy in The Air' section.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 17:12:29 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 17:20:50 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 17:28:36 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 5, 2006 17:44:40 GMT 12
Feel free to print these folders out and compile your own Jimmie Allen's Manual of the Royal Air Force. Here is the last floder, Folder 12. I assume this was the end of the series but am not sure. it's the last that J.M. Thomson collected anyway. And here is the back cover, which i find extraordinary. First because like the front cover it's printed in colour, a rarity in wartime - second because the photo is in colour too - very, very reare in 1940's NZ on any publication, near alone children's books - and three they have put a human face to the fictional Jimmie Allen. The character of Jimmie Allen was an American invention, so I don't know whether this young chap in the photo was an American and part of the radio show's publicity pack, or whether the publishers selected a Kiwi boy to play the role for publicity here. I think this is an amazing book how it uses the tie-in with a US radio show, a Kiwi grocery store and the British RAF, with references every now and then to our own RNZAF.
|
|
|
Post by phil on Aug 19, 2006 22:08:23 GMT 12
That's more like it, information on bombs and photographs, much more my area of interest!
I'm impressed with the level of detail included in both these folders. I didn't realise that explosive release units were in use in WW2.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 31, 2019 23:12:30 GMT 12
I just came across this advert for the Jimmie Allen Manual of the RAF from the Evening Post dated 9th of April 1941.
|
|
|
Post by senob on Aug 1, 2019 20:55:57 GMT 12
Just looking at some of the adverts. Pretty cheap for the whitebait. 1/4 to 2 bob (13c - 20c) a tin and the tins were big from memory (1960s) - think 51b (2.27kg) possibly. Remember the Self Help shops to - long time ago.
|
|