Author: David Crook
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1909808792
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 111
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Book Description
“A brilliant first-hand account of the life of a fighter pilot” in World War II (The Spectator). Spitfire Pilot was written in 1940 in the heat of battle, when the RAF stood alone against the might of Hitler’s Third Reich. It is a tremendous personal account of one of the fiercest and most idealized air conflicts—the Battle of Britain—seen through the eyes of a pilot of the famous 609 Squadron, which shot down over one hundred planes in that epic contest. Often hopelessly outnumbered, David Crook and his colleagues, in their state-of-the-art Spitfires, committed acts of unimaginable bravery against the Messerschmitts and the Junkers. Many did not make it—and Crook describes the absence they leave in the squadron with great poignancy. Includes an introduction by historian Richard Overy
Author: Roger Hall
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781445605579
Category : Britain, Battle of, Great Britain, 1940
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The intensely evocative memoir of one of 'the Few', Spitfire pilot Roger Hall. The Battle of Britain memoir of Roger Hall, a Spitfire pilot in 152 Squadron based in the South East of England, the heart of the fighting during the epic battle. Roger recounts in exhaustive detail his own experience of air-to-air combat with Me109s and Me110s (he shot down three enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain), and that of his fellow pilots. Hall had no compunction in revealing his fear of wartime flying. He strips away the veneer of glory, smart uniforms and wild parties and uncovers the ordinary, very human young men who lived a life in which there was no tomorrow. There is no nostalgia here.
Author: Mary Ellis
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473895383
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 340
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Book Description
This WWII biography recounts the heroic contributions of a female pilot who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Wellington Bombers for the RAF. A farmer’s daughter from Oxfordshire, Mary Ellis fell in love with flying at the age of eleven, when she rode in a biplane at a flying circus. Already a licensed pilot by the time the Second World War broke out, Mary joined the Air Transit Auxiliary in 1941. As a ferry pilot, she transported aircraft for the Royal Air Force, including more than four hundred Spitfires and seventy-six different kinds of aircraft. After the war, Mary accepted a secondment to the RAF as one of the first pilots to fly the new Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first fighter jet. By 1950, she became Europe's first female air commandant. In this authorized biography, Mary and biographer Melody Foreman vividly recount her action-packed career spanning almost a century of aviation. Mary says: I am passionate for anything fast and furious. I always have been since the age of three and I always knew I would fly. The day I stepped into a Spitfire was a complete joy and it was the most natural thing in the world for me.
Author: Dilip Sarkar
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445624575
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 534
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Book Description
Spitfire fighter pilots tell their extraordinary stories of combat during the Second World War.
Author: Johnnie Houlton
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 9780719541780
Category : Fighter pilots
Languages : no
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Selvbiografisk beretning af pilot fra New Zealand om sin tjeneste i RAF under 2. verdenskrig
Author: Black' Robertson
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 9781526784865
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
This is no ordinary memoir. Moving back and forth through time, two stories with fascinating parallels gradually unfold. One is of a Second World War Spitfire ace whose flying career came to a premature end when he was shot down and lost an eye, the other is about his progeny, a second generation fighter pilot who rose to the rank of air marshal. There were times when the lives of both father and son, 'Robbie' and 'Black' Robertson, hung in the balance - occasions when survival was simply a matter of luck. The narrative is unique in its use of two separate and distinct voices. The author's own reminiscences are interwoven with those of his father recorded more than thirty years ago. Intensely personal and revealing, controversial too at times, this memoir is above all about people. There is a final irony though. The son spent a lifetime training for the ultimate examination - one that despite strictly limited preparation his father passed with flying colors. To Black Robertson's eternal regret, he was never able to put his own training to the test. His father was awarded the DFC and retired as a flight lieutenant after five years or so. He himself served for nearly thirty-six years, earned a Queen's Commendation, an OBE and CBE and served as an ADC to HM The Queen. But after reaching almost the top of the RAF tree, in one important sense he retired unfulfilled; his mettle was never tested under fire. Anyone interested to know more about flying, about the RAF, about leadership, about character even, need look no further than this beautifully crafted, immensely readable account.
Author: George Beurling
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1909166294
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 147
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Book Description
An aviator’s true story of WWII air combat, including two dramatic weeks in the skies above the besieged island of Malta. Twenty-five thousand feet above Malta—that is where the Spitfires intercepted the Messerschmitts, Macchis, and Reggianes as they swept eastward in their droves, screening the big Junkers with their bomb loads as they pummeled the island beneath: the most bombed patch of ground in the world. One of those Spitfire pilots was George Beurling, nicknamed “Screwball,” who in fourteen flying days destroyed twenty-seven German and Italian aircraft and damaged many more. Hailing from Canada, Beurling finally made it to Malta in the summer of 1942 after hard training and combat across the Channel. Malta Spitfire tells his story and that of the gallant Spitfire squadron, 249, which day after day ascended to the “top of the hill” to meet the enemy against overwhelming odds. With this memoir, readers experience the sensation of being in the cockpit with him, climbing to meet the planes driving in from Sicily, diving down through the fighter screen at the bombers, dodging the bullets coming out of the sun, or whipping up under the belly of an Me for a deflection shot at the engine. This is war without sentiment or romance, told in terms of human courage, skill, and heroism—a classic of WWII military aviation.
Author: Jacky Hyams
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN: 1782438173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
Published in association with the Imperial War Museum, this is a fascinating anthology of first-hand stories from Spitfire heroes and heroines of World War II. Using documents, letters, stories, photographs and articles from the Museum's unparalleled archive, this is a tribute to the most iconic plane in aviation history - and the people behind it.
Author: Geoffrey Wellum
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241984335
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, eighteen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . . . Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat almost immediately, Wellum finds himself flying several sorties a day, caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s. Over the coming months he and his fellow pilots play a crucial role in the Battle of Britain. But of the friends that take to the air alongside Wellum many never return.
Author: Giles Whittell
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007235364
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
First published in 2007. The accounts of women who flew aircrafts for the British Royal Air Force (RAF) to the frontline of World War II. The women of Air Transport Auxillary came from every continent. They were not allowed into combat, but delivered warplanes to the male pilots who would fly them into battle.
