«Gunpowder & Glory» by Harry Smee, Henry Macrory

Frank Brock only lived to be 33. Nonetheless, he did more in that short life than most men could accomplish in several. The hottest fires burn most quickly and here was a man who burned brightly, extinguished in a blaze of glory. The scion of the world-famous Brock Fireworks was killed in action in Belgium during the most daring British raid of WWI, with a cutlass in one hand and a revolver in the other. Picture a daredevil combatant, elite athlete, secret agent and brilliant inventor all rolled into a precocious boy raised in a fireworks family that allowed him to become a pyrotechnical genius. There you have Frank Brock — remarkable combination of James Bond, Thomas Edison, Indiana Jones, and MacGyver. Gunpowder and Glory is the first-ever biography of Brock, an unheralded hero of WWI whose contribution to the war effort saved tens of thousands of lives and helped to end The Great War. Frank could easily have been the template for 007. He was:· A heavyweight boxer and powerhouse rugby player· An expert marksman and oarsman· A first-rate pilot· Commissioned in all three branches of the armed services — army, navy, and air force — in WWI· An inventor who ended Germany’s dream of air supremacy with his pioneering Brock Bullet. · Ingenious and he helped prevent German domination of the English Channel by inventing Dover Flares which lit up the sea at night and forced U-boats into deep mine fields.Still, his exploits did not end there. As a secret agent Brock dashed to France on his wedding day, snuck into Switzerland, rowed across Lake Constance into enemy territory, and orchestrated the world’s first strategic bombing raid — ordered by Winston Churchill himself — at the zeppelin factory in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Lastly, on the day of his untimely death, he led the charge in a surprise naval attack only made possible by the artificial fog he invented to mask their daring approach. Co-authored by his grandson, Gunpowder and Glory tells more than Brock’s amazing life of invention and heroism. Woven into the narrative is the dazzling history of C.T. Brock & Company Fireworks, the world-famous firm started by Frank’s five-times great-grandfather, and which perform their pyrotechnic extravaganzas around the world to this day.