VENOM SQUADRON

Arthur Barker, London, 1983, 1^st.  ISBN 0-213-16878-2.  Hard cover, 155 pages.  Very good; yellow cloth with black lettering on spine; binding tight.  Dust jacket with price intact has light edge and cover wear a few impressions on front panel and a few scratches on rear; tiny tear at upper edge of rear flap.  Interior clean and unmarked.  Jacket design by Mike Roffe.  ‘November 1956.  Based in Cyprus and commanding two squadrons of de Havilland Venom fighter-bombers, Wing Commander George Yeoman is the first to be called into the clash between Anglo-French forces and the Egyptians over the Suez Canal.  Operation Musketeer, in which combined air-attack forces demolish the Egyptian airfields west of Suez, is soon over, but there is still action for the Venoms in an unexpected area.  The tiny, oil-rich state of Muramshir has asked for British support against invasion by its powerful neighbour, Khorat, and Yeoman’s Venom squadron is despatched to show some air strength.  To their amazement they face not the usual outdated British war planes of the Gulf states but the latest Russian-built MiG fighters, with speed and range infinitely superior to the Venoms.  Yeoman’s Middle East assignment turns into a battle to the death – and into it he has to lead young RAF pilots who have never before encountered such grueling conditions combined with such grimly determined opponents.’ (from front flap)