Green Balls The Adventures of a Night-Bomber
Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1919. Octavo, publisher's green cloth with black lettering, viii, 310 pp. Cloth discoloured on spine, light spotting throughout, otherwise a very good copy. First edition.
Aviator, writer and poet, Paul Bewsher served in the Royal Naval Air Service from 1915 to 1918, before transferring to the Royal Air force from 1918-1919. In Green Balls, the author vividly presents his experiences of night-bomber aerial raids in France and Belgium.
In this candid autobiography Bewsher captures the hearts and minds of his readers. It was originally serialised in Blackwood's magazine before picked up by Blackwood and Sons for publication as a book.
Green Balls is an overlooked account of a young man plunged into the chaos of the European War. Paul Bewsher writes: 'I have tried faithfully to describe the sensations, the strange inexplicable fears, the equally inexplicable fearlessness of a desk-bound London youth, pitchforked into the hitherto unknown, untried occupation of bombing at night from the air'.
Noffsinger provides a good biographical summary, as follows: 'Bewsher's experiences are recorded from October 1915 to April 1918 at an RNAS station in England and with No. X Wing (Handley-Page) in France. Raids described include Hagendingen, Bruges aerodrome and harbour, Namur bridge and Zeebrugge Mole. He crashed at sea 10 April 1918. Later Bewsher served on HMS Manica, a kite balloon ship. He was an observer of the sinking of HMS Triumph.' Myron Smith 143 (noting the Blackwood's serial); New York Public library catalogue (1938), 3834; Noffsinger 210. Item #5037
Price (AUD): $160.00