The Royal Indian Air Force at War : An account of Air Operations in South-East Asia

This has to be the most expensive book that I ever bought, atleast in terms of Rupees per Cubic cm of volume!. But well worth it. Published in 1946 by the Directorate of Public Relations, the book is a pinbound volume with about 120 pages of text and photos. Colour plates showcase water color paintings by Henry Sheldon.

Among my collector friends (some of them with very deep pockets) , no one has a copy. So I solemnly declare that this is the only copy known to be in the wild. Even USI is said to have only a photocopy.

I am listing the copies with other Libraries here. Let me know if you run into any stashed away anywhere.

Oh btw. I owe you one - eBay!

Catalogue Searches: (Zero, Zilch, Nada)
Amazon.com : Not Listed , Amazon.co.uk : 0 , Amazon.ca : Not Listed , Abebooks : 0 , Bookfinder : 0 , WorldCat.org : 0

Known Copies:

1. Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA http://lccn.loc.gov/47022977

2. British Library, UK Link

3. Imperial War Museum Collection, UK Link

Let me know if you find more

30 November 2013 Update : Roughly four years after i made the above post, I am glad to mention that a SECOND copy of the above book has been spotted in the wild - in the hands of another Indian Aviation Enthusiast. Vinayak Dutt Shukla has one copy in his collection too - and he sends proof!  Its actually in better condition than my copy..

Congratualations on the great acquisition - Now guard it with your life VDS!

Flight of the Falcon

Flight of the Falcon is the autobiography of Air Commodore S Sajad Haider, PAF. The copy I bought was delivered today. Wow what a book! - long overdue and something that definitely needed to be written from the Pakistani side for decades. The book's 65 air war chapter quotes extensively from our own air war book on 65, and it is almost inevitable for me that I have to read it side by side with IPAW65 (and an excuse for my tattered copy to form the background in this photo).

The book offers the first critical look at the PAF's role in 65 and offers a honest and dispassionate look at the PAF planning and claims. There are some great stories about 71 too. It would take too long for me to write all about it.. but in short.. go out and buy this book - its money well spent.

The Indian Aviation Library (Updated)

Not the whole collection - There are a few more books to be bought and procured. This is from last year. The earlier post which is similar is two years old. Will update a photo from this year shortly as I got yet another half a dozen new books including the elusive "Touching the Sky" Coffee table book.

Books I should have reviewed but didnt

I always appreciate a book that I enjoyed reading . And after every good book I read, I promise myself that I will write a few words or even review it on my website - but usually never ever came around to doing so.

I wrote some basic reviews on Amazon for a few - including Mansoor Shah's Gold Bird, Peter Smith's Vultee Vengeance, Roopinder Singh's Arjan Singh, but there are still a lot more great books that I have read over time that I didnt write about. (Yes I have written about YEAGER! - but that was more of a rant than a review!)

Without further ado - the books that I should review in detail .. at the earliest! (In no particular order)

1. The Incredible War - Air Marshal Bharat Kumar
2. Himalayan Eagles - Pushpindar Singh
3. Battle for Pakistan - John Fricker
4. The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965 - Yours truly and Samir Chopra

The first two are fairly recent. Frickers book is now three decades old, but still a great read if you know what you are looking for. the last one is my own book - its been five years since its final draft, and with loads of research work in between, there are lot of criticisms that I have about it. well.. some day!

State Central Library, Afzal Gunj, Hyderabad

This photograph is from the TIME-LIFE archives on Google. I had to rack my brains to id the building - because this style of architecture is usually found in the Osmania University - and I was not able to place this. Then I realised that it was a Library - it was the State Central Library in Afzal Gunj (or Afzalgunj), near the Osmania General Hospital.

I was a regular to the library in the 90s, first visiting it in 1990 and visited it as recently as 2004 or 2005. Its a pretty big library -and had a great collection of military books related to india. Their storage room has tons of old rare books - including Gazettes of India dating from the 19th Century.

The building is one of the 137 such designated as "Heritage Buildings" by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

I tried locating a contemporary photograph of this building but was not able to locate one - Strange in the age of Digital Photography and Internet Photo uploads.

My Indian Air Force and Indian Aviation Book Collection

The two photos on the left show the 'Indian Aviation' books collection - a selection of Indian, Pakistani and British Aviation books related to India and the Indian Air Force. One of the recent books on Kashmir Air War is missing, but this is as best as it can get. A couple of IAF Coffee Table books are also missing from the shelves, they are tucked away in a drawer somewhere.