Tommy Broom was a pre-war erk who left Somerset for a life of adventure in far off places in the British Empire. His time as an armourer in the Sudan and Egypt is well recorded, but it is his transfer to air crew just prior to World War II and his subsequent service which makes up the bulk of a very rewarding book.
It’s fair to say that Tommy Broom enjoyed a full life, and this excellent biography makes for the kind of read leaving you wishing you had known the man. Informative and deeply affectionate, the story is told in a homely style by a writer anxious to engage young and old in what is fast becoming a lost world.
In reviewing this book I am anxious not to give anything of the story away beyond the basic facts that Tommy was not only one of the elite navigators of Bomber Command, but that he was also a successful evader and immensely courageous with it. He was awarded the DFC three times.
Even the photographs leave you feeling he must have been a very likeable man, as he cheerfully peers out at you with his trademark RAF moustache and a pipe on the go. Just the sort of image one expects from a war time air force officer. Tommy’s post war life held a mixture of happiness and tragedy but the reader can take comfort knowing how much this giant of a man was revered. Tom Parry Evans’ book is released in revised form to acknowledge the sad fact that this wonderful man is no longer with us. I have no hesitation in recommending this lovely book to you.
Mark Barnes.
Buy it from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Squadron-Leader-Tommy-Broom-DFC/dp/1844156494
Squadron Leader Tommy Broom DFC**
The Legendary Pathfinder Mosquito Navigator
Tom Parry Evans
Pen & Sword Aviation
Paperback 192 pages
ISBN: 9781848845824
Published: 2 November 2011