"Bomber Command" by Max Hastings

[Lyffe]

Just wondering if anyone has a copy of the 1999 edition of Max Hastings's "Bomber Command". The posed photograph on the front cover shows ACM Sir Arthur Harris with four officers being 'briefed' by a fifth officer leaning over Harris's shoulder. The latter is Group Captain Magnus Spence, the Command Met Officer, which means the photo was taken after 11 Sep 1944 (when he was commissioned). I'd like to name the other officers in the group - can anyone help please?

Brian

[Amrit]

Brian

the picture is a Getty picture and the original caption/description reads:

"10th July 1943: British Air Force officer Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris, (centre) commander-in-chief of RAF Bomber Command, studies documents in the bunker at Bomber Command with Senior Air-Staff Officer, Deputy Air-Staff Officer, and Group Captains Of Intelligence and Armaments. Original Publication: Picture Post - 1473 - The Man Who Picks The Target For Tonight - pub. 1943 (Photo by Leonard McCombe/Picture Post/Getty Images)"

The book itself gives no details of the cover pic except it was copyrighted to Getty (hence how i found the caption...by searching for Bomber Harris in their archive)

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=en-GB&family=editorial&assetType=image&ep=4&p=bomber+ harris

K

[Lyffe]

Much obliged Amrit - since it's dated July 1943 I'm obviously way off beam, but the chap leaning over Harris is the spitting image of my man.

We grumble enough at the cost of material from TNA but one has to be a millonaire to afford a copy of a photo from Getty images (I checked out of curiosity).

Brian

[Amrit]

I would advise caution with their dating. I have since found a number of spurious dates, including one for a Lancaster of 50 Squadron, the picture supposedly created in mid-1940!!

A

[Unverified 9395]

If you mean the man second from left, leaning over Harris' right shoulder (our left as we look at it) the man is Group Captain Noel Stephen Paynter. He became Chief Intelligence Officer at Bomber Command on November 2nd 1942, and was apparently made an Acting Air Commodore on December 16th 1943, although I have his 'new' uniform when he attained this rank and the tunic has a date of 7th February 1944 in it.

Paynter resigned his commission in protest at Harris not being given a place at the post war Victory celebrations, and later became a Director of MI5. He died in 1998.

So I'd think the date is correct or close to it..