Bowman, Martin W. Voices in Flight. Squadron Scramble!

RAF and Commonwealth Fighter Pilots of the Second World War

Feel your pulse racing and your heart pounding as you follow the pilots of The Few running to their planes when the alarm sounds and the enemy attacks for the second time in a day over the sunny skies of southern England. Then, after the Spitfire Summer of 1940, as RAF pilots strove to defy the enemy over the devastated ruins of Malta, the George Cross Island, or defend Britain at night during the months of blackout during the Blitz. The prelude to D-Day, the disastrous attack on Dieppe, was the scene of the RAF's largest air battle of the war to date, and Operation Overlord was protected by the overwhelming air power of the 2nd Tactical Air Force. All these momentous events are recounted through the words of the pilots who fought in the merciless arena of aerial combat, where a single moment can turn victory into defeat and life into certain death. Voices in Flight: Squadrons Scramble! goes beyond the air war in Europe and takes us to the parched plains and jungle-covered mountains of northeast India and Burma, where the enemy bore the rising sun instead of the swastika and Hurricane fighters became Hurricane bombers. This book covers all the theatres, including Greece, the Mediterranean and Russia, with an account by Soviet Union hero Lieutenant Colonel Boris Safonov, who flew his Hurricane alongside British pilots in the Arctic. Compiled by aviation historian Martin Bowman, this collection of narrated stories of aerial combat comes from a variety of pilots, some of whom are very well known. They not only demonstrate the bravery and courage of the knights of the air, but also highlight the different challenges of the campaigns that were fought in areas as far apart as the North Sea and Singapore.