Name: For Luck and Safe Return
SKU: 69114797
Price: 674.00 TWD
Availability: InStock
Author: Edward Devenish
ISBN: 9798171415310

Type

Physical Book

Publisher

Independently published

Author

Edward Devenish

Language

English

Pages

198

ISBN13

9798171415310

For Luck and Safe Return

Edward Devenish (Author) · Independently published · Physical Book

New Book Imported to Taiwan

Delivery: 06 Nov - 16 Nov

NT$ 674

NT$ 674

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Synopsis "For Luck and Safe Return"

A toy penguin goes to Berlin. A sailor returns to a sinking destroyer for the charm he believes will save him from drowning. A bomber crew performs the same strange ritual before every operation.Why did men operating some of the most advanced military technology in the world still carry lucky charms, trust mascots and repeat superstitious rituals before going into danger?For Luck and Safe Return uncovers the remarkable beliefs that travelled with British servicemen through the Second World War - from RAF Bomber Command and the Royal Navy to infantry fighting across north-west Europe.Drawing on surviving museum objects, flying log books, operational records, wartime newspapers, oral histories and personal testimony, Edward Devenish follows the real stories behind a wedding-cake charm carried in a bomber, Percy the parachuting penguin, the gremlins blamed for aircraft failures, the legendary Lancaster S for Sugar, a sailor's protective caul, a submarine mascot, a lucky black cat and a rabbit's foot carried through escape from captivity.These were not relics of a world untouched by modern warfare. They existed alongside radar, navigation systems, torpedo directors, artillery and highly trained crews because technology could reduce danger without ever removing chance.Documented rather than sensationalised, this is a social history of wartime luck - and of what ordinary objects could mean when safe return was never guaranteed.For readers of RAF and Bomber Command history, Royal Navy history, British military history, wartime social history and the stranger documented stories of Britain at war.