Wing Leader

Chatto & Windus 1956 / Reprint Society 1958

In terms of enemy aircraft destroyed, `Johnnie' Johnson was the tiop Allied fighter ace of World War Two, with 38 accredited victories. After qualifying as a civil engineer, he tried to join the Auxiliary Air Force, but `it was a very select service in those days - you almost had to possess your own aeroplane.' He was again unlucky when trying to get into the RAFVR and despairing of ever getting into the RAF he finally joined the Leicestershire Yeomanry as a trooper. In 1939, when the RAFVR was expanded, he was at last accepted as a pilot under training. After the war he served with the USAF in Krea, and later commanded a Sabre-jet wing in Germany...