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JAMES C. DOW, ROYAL AIR FORCE : 1944 - 1945 ORIGINAL DIARY AND PHOTO ALBUM OF A 19 YEAR OLD BRITISH MAN TRAINING TO BE A RADIO OPERATOR IN CANADA

12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. On offer is a super, original manuscript diary handwritten by James C. Dow, trainee of the Royal Air Force, written in England and then at 31 P.D. Training Camp, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Along with the diary is a photograph album titled 'The Canadian Adventure. Sept. 1944 to March 1945.' Historians and researchers of the era and the experience of British training in Canada will find the two items complimenting one another in casting interesting light on the day-to-day training routine of a middle-class 19 year old man training as an RAF radio operator during the Second World War. At the start of the diary Dow is in training in Lincolnshire, engaged in such activities as learning Morse Code and doing transmitter tuning practice. By August he is training in Lancashire, and on 25 August he is drafted to Canada. He usually begins his businesslike entries with a short report of the progress of the war, and end with a mention of the weather. In between are usually several sentences of personal information. A typical entry (12 April 1944) reads: 'The Russians have made considerable progress towards the center of the Crimea. | Had a pretty easy morning; ostensibly cleaning up defense trenches in the Larch Wood on the far side of the North Drome, under Sgt. Fish of the Regiment. Quite restful! | Denis passed his morse this morning: so did Mac. Denis & I spent most of the afternoon in the Information Room (officially "games"). We, Taffy Standish, Dave Hands & Sid Steed are going on day pass to Lincoln tomorrow. | It was quite mild - sunny, with some cloud'. On 26 he reaches the Trois Rivieres camp, seventy miles from Quebec. The following day he complains: 'We are here for nothing more definite than fatigues to pass time until we start training. Dennis & I are in a party which has to clear up variou rubbish dumps around the camp'. On 24 October he starts his course in Moncton: 'It is going to be very hard work for the 22 weeks it lasts (if I stick it out!). We work 8 hours a day, so there are usually extra assignments at night.' By the last entry in the diary Dow is 'Flying again this morning - a pleasant trip. As W/Op once again. I got an all-right'. The diary also contains some addresses, and a list of 25 books Dow has read. Album: landscape 8vo, 24 pp, containing 49 captioned black and white photographs, ranging in size from 8.5 x 12 cm to 6 x 9 cm, together with a postcard of Notre Dame Church Montreal. Internally sound in a worn binding, with the photographs in excellent condition. The first eight pictures are of the training camp at Moncton, mostly with named individuals. The next eight are of Montreal, and these are followed by nineteen pictures under the heading 'Quebec, St. Louis de Courville. Week Ends with the Woods', the first two being captioned 'with Bill Scollay & Taffy Standish near the Wood's [sic] home' and 'Desmond Wood in front, with Jimmy from next door'. There follow two pictures headed 'After we left', and eight of an aircraft, under the heading 'No 8 Air Observer School, Ancienne Lorette, Quebec'. The first shows an 'Anson about to take off', and there are also an 'Interior scene during flight', an 'Astrocompass in silhouette', and five views out from over the wing, including the 'Shawnigan Falls & the Shawnigan River a frew miles north of Trois Rivieres'. The last four images are of a 'New York Interlude - Christmas 1944'. Diary: 12mo, with 91 full pages of neatly-written entries. Text clear and complete. Fair: internally sound and clean on lightly-aged paper, in worn original boards. Dow's ownership inscription, inside the front board, reads 'James C. Dow. | R.A.F. | 1944.' Overall G+.. Book Condition: Good+

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