Growling over the oceans - Deborah Lake

The Avro Shackleton was a
formidable machine with its Griffon engines producing the characteristic
grumble that gave the aircraft one of its nicknames, the Growler. This book
contains stories from the men for whom the aircraft became a way of life.
Combining memories and anecdotes from crew members with archive material
(including rare and previously unseen photographs) Growling over the Oceans
is an intimate and vivid introduction to the world of the Shack. In the last
days of World War Two, the makers of the Lancaster bomber began to consider
designing a new aircraft for Coastal Command. It eventually became the
Shackleton. The men who flew and serviced the production version became
fiercely proud of their aeroplane and its lack of home comforts. The
Shackleton's ten man crews became a legend; their aeroplane was noisy, gloomy
and demanded constant maintenance but it bred a aircrew who became inured to
long, thundering and monotonous flight, and developed (even taking) a
perverse pride in their misfortunes. The Shackleton served in anti-submarine
warfare, maritime reconnaissance and colonial policing. The Cold War ensured
that the threat of unrestricted submarine warfare against British shipping
kept the Shackleton on permanent alert for twenty years. It also became a
troop transport, a bomber and a search and rescue aircraft when the need
arose. From its first public flight in 1949 to the end of the Cold War when
the Shackleton finally retired from service and entered history this book
provides many reminiscences, some amusing, some serious, of those who flew in
the Shack, the aircraft that struck more fear into its own crew than it did
the enemy.