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Coming Down in the Drink (Hardback)

The Survival of Bomber 'Goldfish', John Brennan DFC

Aviation > Aviation Biography & Memoirs Aviation > WWII WWII

By Sean Feast
Imprint: Pen & Sword Aviation
Pages: 190
Illustrations: 20
ISBN: 9781473891531
Published: 20th March 2017

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Radio Interview

Author interview with presenter Nick Coffer on BBC Three Countries Radio (31/05/17)

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Coming Down in the Drink is the story of Flight Lieutenant John Brennan DFC.
John is an Irishman who need not have fought in the war at all. A sense of adventure took him to London where he trained as a chef before joining the RAF and qualifying as a wireless operator/air gunner.

Posted to 148 Squadron in the Middle East in 1941, John was soon in the fray as the front gunner of a Wellington, flying daily sorties to Benghazi in what was known as the mail run, bombing enemy ships that were offloading vital supplies to Rommel and the Afrika Korps. As much at risk from faulty engines as enemy action, John completed a tour of almost 300 hours of operational flying, including an operation in March 1942 in which his Wellington suffered an engine failure and came down in the sea. He thus became a member of the Goldfish Club.

Posted home and commissioned, he spent time instructing in Scotland, surviving yet another accident in which his pilot crashed into a mountainside. Volunteering for a second tour, John joined 78 Squadron in the summer of 1944, being crewed with one of the flight commanders. He completed his tour, this time as a wireless operator, in March 1945, by which time they were operating in daylight in support of the Allied advance. He was awarded the DFC.

John is one of the only surviving wartime members of the Goldfish Club, and has a fascinating record of 63 operations that covers both the forgotten bombing war in the Middle East in 1941/42, operating from strips of sand in the barren desert, to a main force heavy bomber squadron in the snow of Yorkshire at the end of the war.

These are gripping stories not only about John himself but also what happens every day in a squadron operating in the heat of air war. Many crews died not only by enemy fire but also because of weather, engine troubles, navigational errors (no gps at that time), fuel shortage, sabotage and pilot errors due to stress combined with fatigue and inexperience.

Read the full review here

Aviation Book Reviews

As featured on

BBC Radio Three Counties

As featured in

Ireland's Military Story, Summer 2017

With the number of WWII veterans rapidly shrinking, this is another very welcome account based on the experiences of one who was there. The author has provided an absorbing story from interviews with John Brennan DFC. Highly Recommended.

Read the full review here.

Firetrench

About Sean Feast

Sean Feast started a career in journalism in 1985, concurrently training at the London College of Printing and later joining Maxwell Business Communications. As an author, he has written or co-written more than a dozen books, including Heroic Endeavour, Master Bombers, A Pathfinder’s War. He is also a regular contributor to a variety of aviation magazines, especially FlyPast and Aeroplane Monthly.

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