Fighter Pilot

by Paul Richey

Paperback, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

940.54

Genres

Publication

Cassell & Co. (2004), Edition: Reprint

Description

One of 'The 30 Best Travel and Adventure Books of All Time', as selected by Gear Patrol, Winner 2015 US Travel and Adventure website.Fighter Pilot was written from the immediate and unfettered personal journal that 23-year-old Flying Officer Paul Richey began on the day he and No. 1 Squadron landed their Hawker Hurricanes on a grass airfield in France. Originally published in September 1941, it was the first such account of air combat against the Luftwaffe in France in the Second World War, and it struck an immediate chord with a British public enthralled by the exploits of its young airmen.It is the story of a highly skilled group of young volunteer fighter pilots who patrolled, flew and fought at up to 30,000 feet in unheated cockpits, without radar and often from makeshift airfields, and who were finally confronted by the overwhelming might of Hitler's Blitzkreig. It tells how this remarkable squadron adapted its tactics, its aircraft and itself to achieve a brilliant record of combat victories - in spite of the most extreme and testing circumstances.All the thrills, adrenalin rushes and the sheer terror of dog-fighting are here: simply, accurately and movingly described by a young airman discovering for himself the deadly nature of the combat in which he is engaged.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member JenIanB

Revised, expanded and edited version of the 1941 original. This edition also benefits from chapterisation. No index but additional illustrations and a map.

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LibraryThing member lamour

This memoir of a RAF pilot's experiences in France from 1939 to his flight back to England after being severely wounded, was developed from a daily diary he kept during this period. If you have ever wished to be in a cockpit of a Spitfire closing on German bombers, you won't closer than this

without actually being there. His opinions of his French civilian friends and pilots are very positive. He expresses admiration for the RAF bomber pilots flying to almost certain death in1939.

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LibraryThing member jamespurcell

Outstanding narration of the first days of WW2, when the British were on their way to Dunkirk and had not yet realized the how overwhelming the Nazi Blitzkrieg would be. Vignettes of bucolic life in the BEF air groups during the "Phoney War". Lunching at the local French local cafes after flying

mostly uneventful missions under the "Gentlemen of the Air" rules of WW1. All this ended abruptly when the Germans started bombing villages and strafing refugees on the road. Despite some early deficiencies, wooden props, lack of armor, the Hurricane fighter proved itself a match the Luftwaffe. A key decision, to bring experienced warfighters back home to train others, would make an enormous difference in the forthcoming Battle of Britain.

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