Acknowledgements

I owe a debt to Laurel Productions. Their television programme, "Mutiny in the RAF", broadcast on Channel 4 in the "Secret History" series in 1996, enabled me to renew contact with old acquaintances and stimulated me to write this work. I have included some items of information from the programme, and these are acknowledged in the notes below (by the reference, "Laurel Programme"). In addition, I am grateful to Laurel for allowing me to consult the research material they gathered for their programme.

Arthur Attwood, the central figure in my story, has accumulated a considerable collection of documents - legal papers, letters, minutes, press cuttings and so on - relating to his own and similar cases. I have had access to all of this, and make frequent references below to the "Attwood Collection". I also have to thank Arthur for the many hours he has spent in copying documents, in encouraging, suggesting and criticising, and in preparing the illustrations.

I am also grateful to John Saville for his encouragement and invaluable advice as well as his foreword; to Ernie Margetts for his suggestions and helpful criticism; to Chris Rubinstein for saving me from many pitfalls; to Francis King for his help and his patience; to ex-airmen C Miller, D Streatfield, H Darby and D Foster for permission to quote from their letters; and to my wife, Liz, for miscellaneous services in connection with the book.

I have made use of various Crown copyright documents in the custody of the Public Record Office, and references to these are acknowledged with the prefix PRO in the following notes.

Published Sources
There is no comprehensive account of the RAF strikes, though there is much useful material in the last three chapters of Richard Kisch, The Days of the Good Soldiers (Journeyman Press, 1985). Sadly, Richard - who fought in Spain with the International Brigade - died earlier this year (1998).

In his Brasshats and Bureaucrats (Lawrence and Wishart, 1966), D N Pritt deals with the Attwood and Cymbalist (and several similar) cases in which he was very much involved, and Arthur Attwood has written his own brief account of the Drigh Road affair for Strike, ed. R A Leeson (Allen and Unwin, 1973).