Spitfire Voices: Life as a Spitfire Pilot

Over 100 historic photographs most previously unpublished from veterans own personal collections.

The firsthand combat experiences of Spitfire pilots from throughout the Second World War and in all theaters.

Spitfire Voices represents an important oral history of the Spitfire from the pilot s perspective. The stories of survivors are not simply regurgitated, however, but placed into historical context using contemporary documents often featuring detailed investigative work, as in the reconstruction of Wing Commander Douglas Bader being brought down over France not by an enemy fighter but by one of his own Spitfire pilots.

Deeply moving stories of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in Spitfires are also included, the author drawing upon their personal letters, diaries, contemporary documents and the memories of their families and comrades. The book therefore features a wide-ranging experience, from air combat to ground attack, deck-landings, crashes and bailouts, victories and defeats. Illustrated with photographs from the albums of the pilots concerned, thereby increasing the originality and atmosphere of this comprehensive work, Spitfire Voices represents exactly what is was like flying to war in a Spitfire in the words of those who lived to tell their tales.