Love and Sand

It’s about flying.

It’s about bombing, strafing, and military mayhem in the deserts of World War II.

It is also a story of love found and love lost.

As a World War Two RAF Flyer, the author presents his eye-witness account of inspiring acts of bravery, skill and airmanship on the part of those who flew the planes and manned the guns in the battle that led to the Allies first decisive victory of the war–– The battle of El Alamein.

Interwoven with all the military mayhem he also tells the true story of his first wondrous love; of how he won her, and how, through the exigencies of war and the fecklessness of youth, he eventually lost her.

Read a review at historyofwar.org

Love and Sand is a story of abiding love and the pain of love lost through lies and deceit. The longing and the anguish of those days and nights thread their way through first-hand accounts of near suicidal raids on enemy airfields; through escort patrols during the evacuation of Greece, in which our own Royal Navy did its best to shoot us out of the sky; through the carpet-bombing of Rommel’s beleaguered forces in the Western Desert and through a grueling episode in which the author’s aircraft plowed its way into the tall trees of the forests of Uganda.

And for history buffs Love and Sand also presents a detailed and hitherto unpublished episode in the vital and hazardous activities of the RAF Trans-Africa Aircraft Delivery Group.

With publication of Love and Sand, Howard Layton, World War II RAF flyer, chartered electrical engineer (UK), Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, commercial airplane pilot with instrument rating, founder and owner of a hi-tech manufacturing company, and former professional stage and film actor, presents the second episode in his planned biographical trilogy. His first episode The Thirteen Club, was published in 2001.

Prior to commencing work on his trilogy, his writings were chiefly about technical subjects involved in his work in England in the radio communications field. Later in the US, he wrote mostly about critical processes in the Microchip and Precision Optics industries.