On the ground or in the air, they were a pair of fighting fools. On civvy street, Mike Tulley and Terry Stark were bitter rivals for the middleweight boxing title. Then, in wartime, as Spitfire pilots they were never done trying to outfly and outfight each other — whether or not they died in the […]
“We’ve got two kinds of fighter pilots in this mob — the hunters and the hunted. The hunters fly fast, shoot first and come out on top. The hunted? Well… young Jimmy Daiken there is one of the hunted, because every time he goes up he expects the chop — and he won’t be disappointed…” […]
“Ginger” Stubbs was a cheeky little cockney sergeant pilot whose Hurricane was brought down inside the besieged fortress of Tobruk. Any other pilot would’ve flown right out again after repairs, but not Ginger. The Desert Rats of Tobruk were in trouble, so Ginger and his hard-hitting Hurricane decided to stick around and fight — and […]
If ever a Spitfire in the RAF was special, this one was. No camouflage paint sullied its shining wings; no observer could fail to see it as it flashed across the sky. And yet it seemed that no Nazi plane could shoot it down as it claimed victim after victim. Its pilot, Tom Shaw, would […]
The Luftwaffe were after him, the Germans were hunting him, even his own mates in the RAF were out for Pete Kelly’s head. If ever there was a harum‑scarum fighting fool, it was Kelly. Imagine it! What kind of a man takes off in a brand new Spitfire for a sweep over Italy and ends […]
To the tough rowdies of the whaling fleets from Greenland to the South Pole, he was just ‘Big Olaf’. Star harpoon-gunner of them all, the ship that had Olaf aboard broke records for whales caught and bonuses paid. Six feet four inches of blonde Norwegian with eyes as icy green as the seas he roved, and […]
“ACHTUNG! Wanted, for Top Secret mission behind enemy lines, men who can speak English with a strong American accent, expert in all types of weapons and unarmed combat. Tough, reliable, ruthless.” That notice went round all the crack German Army units. The Nazis got their volunteers, just a handful. They dressed that handful in Yankee […]
Take a look at this list: dispatch-rider’s motorcycle, German staff car, Matilda Tank, Panzer Mark IV. It takes a lot of training, plus plenty practice, to become a really top driver of even one of that lot. No man could handle them all like an ace. No man? Wait a minute, you heard of ‘Wheels’ […]
Sam Blake was fed up. He’d come from Canada to join the R.A.F. to fight Nazis as a fully qualified pilot, only to find he had to learn to fly all over again, the official way. Then they kicked him out of a fighter squadron. “Too reckless and irresponsible,” they said. “Give him a bomber. […]
French pilot Jacques Ledoux was a loner. He fought the war in the air by his own rules, even when it brought bitter criticism from the British pilots he flew with. And when the ugly rumours began to circulate that he was a “Nazi spy”, Jacques just gritted his teeth and fought on as before. […]
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