1951, possible first edition
This is the story of three men and an enterprise begun in a hangar on a deserted aerodrome in Wiltshire. Air Bridge is the West Berliner's term for the Airlift. The time is 1948 and much of the action is played out against the background of blockaded Berlin and the Lift.
The three men are ex-R.A.F. fliers. Though widely different in char-acter, they are bound together by a common purpose. The story is of their desperate attempts to get their machine on to the Airlift in time. Saeton is the driving force behind the enterprise; a man of great personal magnetism and incredible energy, but utterly ruthless, and doorned by the very qualities that make him such an outstanding character.
His partners are Tubby Carter, cockney and very likeable, but too honest and straightforward to sacrifice all his principles to success, and Neil Fraser, in trouble with the authorities for illegal flying activities and a ready tool in Sacton's hands, but with a Scots tenacity that in the end proves as great as Saeton's. The story hinges on Saeton's inability to admit defeat and when he makes Fraser a proposition so fantastic that the sheer impudence of it grips his imagination, the action shifts from the hangar to Wunstorf, Gatow and Berlin.
Hammond Innes always writes his stories from a personal knowledge of the setting. He is an indefatigable traveller in search of material. That is why his books are alive with that all-convincing touch of authenticity which enthrals the reader, whether the background is the icy Antarctic as in The White South or flaming Vesuvius as in The Angry Mountain, Hammond Innes was flown out to Berlin by the R.A.F. when the Airlift was at its peak. Through Fraser, who tells the story, he not only reveals the workings of this greatest of all air operations, but goes behind the scenes, into Berlin and the Russian Zone. Against this live background he has produced a story that moves with great pace to its inevitable and logical conclusion.
Charming vintage book in good condition with worn dustcover

Condition: Good