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Personal Note from the author on June 18th, 2010 -
My third book-in-progress combines autobiography and biography with photography.
It will take take shape over the next three years. In March 2008 I was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts grant as a Mid-Career
author to complete a biographical work currently titled NEWFOUNDLANDERS - A native son in search of
his past and the new Newfoundland. I spent about four months in Newfoundland in 2008 and 2009, and will
be on the island from July 15th to November 1st, 2010. In August-September I will be at my home at 3 Slade's Lane in
Lower Jenkins Cove, Durrell, South Twillingate Island. On the road I can be reached via my Blackberry Curve using SMS text
messaging and/or email to cell phone (604) 603-9934. My email is wayneralph@telus.net. Messages can also be left for "Wayne Ralph" on Facebook or Twitter.
PUBLISHED AND AVAILABLE IN STORES &
ONLINE: Aces, Warriors & Wingmen : Firsthand Accounts of Canada's
Fighter Pilots in the Second World War (John Wiley & Sons, Canada, Ltd, Mississauga, ON) ISBN-0-470-83590-7 was
released in April 2005. It was on the Quill & Quire / Bookmanager.com/ The National Post hardcover, non-fiction best sellers
list from May through August, and by December 2005 more than 7,300 copies had been sold across Canada. The author's award-winning
1997 biography of Canada's most decorated war hero, Lt Col William Barker VC, was released in April 2007 by John Wiley &
Sons Canada in a special 10th anniversary edition revised and redesigned with new, unpublished photographs. William Barker VC - The Life, Death & Legend of Canada's Most Decorated War
Hero - ISBN-0-470-83967-8 - was one of The Globe & Mail's 1997 "Notable Books of the Year"
and received the 1998 McWilliams Medal of the Manitoba Historical Society. It sold about 13,000 copies worldwide.
Wayne Ralph has been interviewed on national and regional television and radio, appeared on and been a technical advisor
for three television documentaries, and frequently addresses schools, service clubs, associations and societies. He lives in White Rock, BC in winter, tel: (604) 538-9434. Summer and fall is spent in
Newfoundland, where he can be reached by cell phone, text message or email at wayneralph@telus.net or (604) 603-9934.
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A 10th anniversary edition of my first book, William Barker
VC - The Life, Death & Legend of Canada's Most Decorated War Hero, was released in April 2007. It is a matched volume
to the 2005 best seller, Aces, Warriors & Wingmen - Firsthand Accounts of Canada's Fighter Pilots in the Second World
War. Both books are hard-covered, illustrated, oversized 8" by 9" format, with extensive reference material, bibliographies,
and indices. They provide biographical profiles on Canadians flyers of the First and Second World Wars based on first-person
accounts told to the author. These profiles include not only stories of aerial combat but also personal recollections of childhood,
post-war adjustment, and old age. The existential world of the fighter pilot is revealed by individual, often idiosyncratic,
and sometimes emotional narrative. Portraits of these men in war and peace are included, as well as many previously unpublished
photos from their private collections. Examples of some of these illustrations are shown on this WEB site.
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Photo of author Wayne Ralph by Donald Hayes. Taken at St John's
harbour, November 3rd, 2008. The author was born in St. John's, Newfoundland in June 1946, grew up in a military family,
and has lived in many towns and cities across Canada.
- He holds a BA from Memorial University of Newfoundland,
and an MA from the University of Calgary; at the latter institution he was the Department of National Defence Strategic Studies
Scholar, completing a thesis on weapons systems procurement in 1983.
- He served as a military flying
instructor in the RCAF and Canadian Forces for six years. He was an airline pilot / federal government pilot for more than
15 years.
- He is the former editor and co-owner of Wings Magazine; and was for six years the editor
of Transport Canada's Aviation Safety Letter.
- His previous book, BARKER VC, was
a "Notable Book of the Year" as selected by Canada's national newspaper, The Globe & Mail,
and was also awarded the McWilliams Medal of the Manitoba Historical Society. The biography was released in a special 10th
anniversary edition in April 2007 by John Wiley & Sons Canada. The new title is William Barker VC - The Life, Death
& Legend of Canada's Most Decorated War Hero
- The biography of Canada's most decorated war
hero became the basis for two television documentaries, in 1999 on Discovery Channel's Flightpath series,
and in 2003 on History Television. Both programs are syndicated and have been sold to networks around the world.
- Aces, Warriors & Wingmen took four years to research and write. The author travelled from
coast to coast, and as far south as Arizona; 106 tape-recorded face-to-face interviews were completed. One third of these
veterans have since died, and continue to die at an accelerating rate.
Perhaps
you might like to know just how good Canada's fighter pilots were during the Second World War. Well, here is just one
statistic: from D-Day to January 1945, 83 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, shot down 532 enemy aircraft - 472 of the 532 were
shot down by Canadian pilots serving with the RCAF and RAF.
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Why I wrote
Aces, Warriors & Wingmen - Firsthand Accounts of Canada's Fighter Pilots in the Second World War:
From an all-ranks strength in 1939 of about 4,000 personnel, and fewer
than 10 regular force and auxiliary squadrons, none well-equipped or properly trained, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)
grew to be the fourth largest air force on the Allied side in the Second World War. It had 78 squadrons, 46 stationed in overseas
theatres. By 1944 the RCAF had more than a quarter million men and women in uniform. About 60% of the 27,000 aircrew serving
overseas were on duty with the Royal Air Force (RAF). Many other Canadians were serving with the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal
Navy.
Sixty years later only a few people have any insight into what was accomplished by these men and women. They
were a generation mostly born during or just after the First World War - a generation that achieved and sacrificed much. Our
young people in Canada lack heroes or heroic models, and turn to American sporting and entertainment figures, mistakenly labelling
them as 'Canadian' heroes.
They do not know, and have certainly not been taught in school, that Canada had thousands
of fighter pilots overseas, highly regarded for their aggression and skill by their colleagues in the British and American
air forces.
Our 150 aces, and their wingmen who protected them, and the thousands of others who flew the fighter
bombers, reconnaissance fighters, and anti-shipping fighters, demonstrated great leadership, courage and fortitude at every
point in the war, and in every theatre of operations.
Aces, Warriors & Wingmen tells the firsthand
accounts of just a few dozen, a rapidly dwindling band of brothers, who flew in the war and made it home safely.
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