Diary Of A Spitfire Pilot

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Andy in West Oz
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Diary Of A Spitfire Pilot

Post by Andy in West Oz »

Not a book you'd immediately think is Pacific-related until you see the rest of the title is "over the English Channel and over Darwin".

http://www.rosenbergpub.com.au/handlePr ... 38&catid=2
It is 1941 and you are 21, flying the most famous aircraft ever built. You have at your command a Merlin V12 engine and four 20mm Hispano cannon. You spend your days hunting the Hun over the English Channel and your evenings partying in London, experiencing the perils of aerial combat and the hazards of wartime romance in the same day. War doesn’t get any better than this.

It is 1943 and you are 23, living in a swamp that pretends to be an airstrip south of Darwin. These days the Japanese come over so infrequently that you are going troppo. None of the women you left behind in London and Sydney seems to give a damn about you. Most of your mates are dead. There is no beer. War is hell.

All this and much more Flying Officer Allen Mawer confided to his diary, a candid and sometimes disconcerting record of his conquests in the air and on the ground. The highs and lows of his war, and how it ended, offer a lively and poignant insight into the human cost of armed conflict.
http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Spitfire-Pi ... 1921719184
Allen Mawer was tragically killed in a training exercise over Darwin at the end of the war. His diary lay hidden for many years until his son edited it for publication.
Andy Wright
Aircrew Book Review
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library - Jorge Luis Borges

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