Boys Bombs and Brussels Sprouts

By J. Douglas Harvey

They called them the “Brylcreem boys” -- the young flyers who streamed into England from the first declaration of war, the kids with the jaunty grins and the willingness to take terrible risks. Among them were thousands of young Canadians, many barely out of high school, all delighted to leave behind humdrum lives in dusty, post-Depression Canada for the irresistible chance to learn to fly and help beat the Germans. Doug Harvey was  one of them -- a nineteen-year-old from Toronto who joined the RCAF, and in 1942 found himself a pilot in the elite Canadian No. 6 Bomber Group.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781551994772

Reviews for Boys Bombs and Brussels Sprouts

[lamour_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this autobiography, Harvey tells us what it was like to serve as a Canadian bomber pilot in England during WW II. It is full of funny & racy anecdotes including one that involves his making love on top of a barrage balloon while it is floating hundreds of feet in the air. He also describes what it was like to sit alone in the dark in a noisy aircraft for hour after hour while waiting for the moment a German night fighter would suddenly appear out of the dark or the flack peppered you plane with shrapnel. However, it is the humour that stays with you. Harvey has also written two collections of other flyers memories entitled The Tumbling Mirth and Laughtered Silver Wings.