How Naval Wings checks memory against official records

John Wellham explains that Naval Wings grew from taped recollections encouraged by the Fleet Air Arm Museum's curator and by questions from Wellham's family. He presents it as a personal record in his own words rather than a replacement for existing operational histories. His flying logbook and contemporary photographs support those memories, while official records provide checks on dates and squadron numbers. Those records sometimes disagree, and the museum helped investigate the disputed points. Wellham's method preserves the memoir's first-person value while allowing its claims to be checked against documentation.