Chasing Shadows: A Wartime Biography of Australian Air Ace
Australian History Young Adult Non-Fiction War & Combat Aviation History Australiana Military Biography World War II Memoir Air Force
Chasing Shadows: A Wartime Biography of Australian Air Ace is the gripping 2007 first-edition paperback that finally gives Bob Cowper—one of Australia’s most decorated but least-known fighter pilots—the spotlight he deserves. Across 166 tightly-written pages, co-authors Stephen Lewis and Cowper himself chart the journey from a dusty outback childhood to the cockpit of a Spitfire over North Africa and the South-West Pacific. Written in clear, conversational English and aimed at both young-adult and adult readers, the book blends white-knuckle combat sorties with quiet reflections on mateship, fear and survival, making it as much a cultural memoir as a military biography.
Collectors prize this DPA Publishing first printing because it predates the later reprints and remains the only edition to carry Cowper’s unfiltered voice before editorial tightening. Aviation enthusiasts will value the first-hand technical detail—engine settings, dog-fight angles, forced-landings in the Tanami—while historians gain an Antipodean counterpoint to better-known RAF and USAF narratives. The clean, unmarked pages noted in this copy mean no previous-owner scribbles or ex-libris stamps, preserving the volume as a crisp reference for researchers tracing RAAF squadron movements or the social history of wartime Australia.
For anyone building a serious Australiana, aviation or military-history shelf, a well-preserved 1st edition of Chasing Shadows is both readable and appreciating; copies in good condition are already scarce. Beyond investment appeal, the book delivers an inspirational story of resilience that still resonates with modern Australians—and with readers worldwide who crave authentic voices from “the forgotten front.”
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