Bruce Barrymore Halpenny

Bruce Barrymore Halpenny (1937 – 3 May 2015) was an English military historian and writer, specializing in airfields and aircraft, as well as ghost stories and mysteries. He was also a broadcaster and games inventor.

Early life Halpenny's father was a Canadian First World War soldier who fought at Vimy Ridge, and his mother was a British First World War munitions worker from Lincolnshire. Bruce himself was from Lincolnshire, England. In the 1950s, whilst in the RAFP, he was wounded and had to undergo several operations to save his hand and arm.

After being wounded, he moved across to the RAF Police on Special Security Duties (Atomic & Chemical Weapons), and was part of a special RAF military police unit in the Nuclear Division,

Literary career

In rehabilitation from his wounding during RAFP service, he started writing and research as a hobby, before turning it into his profession in later years after leaving the forces.

Early years In the early period of his writing career, Halpenny started out by writing love stories and cowboy stories for the American market under pen names. Because of his specialist knowledge of the Royal Air Force, he began to focus on military history, especially that of the RAF in the Second World War, often with deep insights, facts, and personal human interest stories. At one time, he was writing articles for up to 14 military journals around the world, when he was approached by the publishers Patrick Stephens to write the Airfield books due to his vast knowledge and authority. For his research on the airfields, Halpenny interviewed 1,400 people, researched records and letters, and traveled thousands of miles. Halpenny visited each and every airfield he wrote about (some of which he had prior knowledge of from his military days) to ensure accuracy.

His books quickly became essential reference books for all aviation historians. Virtually all of the information was new, in the sense that it had not appeared in the dozens of books which had been written about the RAF, new too were the many photographs that were just a selection of the thousands he collected and commissioned. In the opening chapters of his book Action Stations 2 Wartime Military Airfields of Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, there were a selection of control tower photos – this was the first time this had been done in any book.

He also wrote various military themed books from such as English Electrical/BAC Lightning to Wartime Poems. He specialized in the British jets, English Electric Lightning, English Electric Canberra and Avro Vulcan.

English Electric/BAC Lightning The English Electric/BAC Lightning is an aviation book by British military historian and author Bruce Barrymore Halpenny about the English Electric Lightning. It was published by Osprey Publishing as part of their Air Combat series. It was a best seller in Grimsby, the home town of the Lightning.

The author spent nine months researching the Lightnings The book tells of the day-to-day activities at bomber stations between 1939 and 1945, where the author had meticulously researched his material.

The book also recalls the stories of those that did not survive or were shot down over enemy territory. A routine flight from RAF Skellingthorpe that turned into a nightmare, and memories of raids on Nuremberg, Düsseldorf and Hamburg, where airmen watched their comrades shot out of the sky by a barrage of deadly enemy flak, all help to paint a picture of what it was like to be an airman based in wartime England. The film cameraman was Dick Kursa, the film editor was John Rosser, and the producer was Mike Derby. First shown on BBC1 at 10.15pm on 11 February 1983.

Little Nellie 007

Little Nellie 007 is a 1991 book by Bruce Barrymore Halpenny about the James Bond autogyro, Little Nellie, as featured in the film You Only Live Twice, and her creator, Wing Commander Ken Wallis.

The book, known to James Bond fans, and also used as a reference book for other Bond books, gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, and also a brief history of aviation legend Ken Wallis. Halpenny and Wallis were friends and both ex-Royal Air Force.

The book briefly delves into Ken Wallis's early family connections with aviation, then onto his own World War II exploits, first as an operational pilot in the Army Co-operation Command flying Lysanders and then as an operational captain of Wellington bombers. Finally, the reader is brought to Wallis’s post-war activities and early stunt filming in Brazil, (some around the statue of Christ by the Corcovado Mountain at Rio de Janeiro and at one point accidentally getting caught in one of Brazil’s notorious "ventana" windstorms) and Italy.

The book then gives the behind the scenes information about Little Nellie, a Wallis WA-116 Agile, and the filming. This group had over 300,000 operations flying over enemy territory during the war, losing 50,000 airmen and 8,000 British aircraft. Illustrated throughout, the book includes interviews with Wing Commander K H Wallis, the man Halpenny attributes as having "saved the Canberra". Each of the many marks and variants are described. He chose the latter and the finished article is an "outstanding" By 1984, he had become acknowledged as not only a respected British military historian, expert in airfield histories, but also the expert in RAF Ghosts, especially surrounding airfields. Ghost Stations was born, and in 1986 the first book was published, and proved a best seller as it recounts how "headless airmen and other spectres have appeared in control towers and other Service buildings throughout the country". Such was demand that a second book entitled, Aaargh! was published with over 30 stories, one of which was The eerie mystery of Lightning 894. Aaargh!, was later to become Ghost Stations 2, as more books later followed over the years, and became the cult series of Ghost Stations books.

Halpenny's unique knowledge and position meant that he was also known for accessing and finding information generally closed to the general public and media, especially Ministry of Defence (MoD) material concerning UFOs.

Halpenny always maintained that all airfields are haunted. Over the years, he uncovered a wealth of material about ghostly experiences on wartime airfields.

Charities, causes and animal rights Halpenny was always vocal in his campaigns for numerous organizations and causes, especially concerning veterans, war widows, wounded and invalided servicemen and women. He also helped schools and children's charities such as Mencap, in campaigning and highlighting issues, and even in one case when he donated a vintage bottle of wine to help raise funds. The bottle was unique in that it was the last bottle remaining after the Nazis had plundered the cellars of families living in an Italian Abruzzo village in World War II. The author's uncle was a Canadian tank commander whose tank was the first to liberate the village, and was also the first tank to enter Ortona in the Battle of Ortona. The bottle was given to the author, as he lived in Abruzzo and his research work had taken him to that area. Halpenny said on donating the bottle:

He also long campaigned for the Government to do their part and preserve a 1939-45 War airfield in its original condition; to let future generations see how the RAF operated during those dark days.

He was a long-term supporter for animal welfare, especially dogs and wolves, and was the president of the Wolf Preservation Foundation.

Family

Bruce and his wife, equestrian writer and horsewoman, Marion Rose Halpenny, had a son, Baron Barrymore Halpenny, a commercial artist.

Books

Ghost Stations (book series) 1986–2012