All manner of men took to the perilous skies in 1940, determined to defend the British Isles from Goering’s fearsome aircraft armada. Different nationalities; British, Polish, Czech, French, and even Irish pilots, like Michael O’Connor, banded together and lunged headfirst at the mass of Luftwaffe bombers and fighters — Axis pilots who were equally determined […]
Major Kurt Krantz was a Luftwaffe ace, one of Germany’s top fighter pilots. The leader of the famous “Black Eagles” squadron had no equal — except for one man. That man was Harry “Handlebar” Hanley of the RAF, the only pilot to ever hold his own against Krantz. Then one day Harry found himself alone […]
Have you ever dreamed that you’re falling, falling, whirling round and round, never going to stop? Terrifying isn’t it? That’s how Nick Kirby felt every time he went in a plane. You see, Nick suffered from vertigo — an uncontrollable fear of heights. Oh, there’s another thing about Nick. He joined the RAF as a […]
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 […]
On a lone sortie over France, RAF pilot Frank Selby ran into trouble in the shape of two marauding Messerschmitts. Soon he had to bail out — and fast! He landed safely, stood up, dusted himself off — and looked around to see a fully grown lion bounding towards him. This was the moment Frank […]
“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 […]
It was a sad day for Clive Shaw when he learned that his older brother, Mike, had been shot down in his Spitfire over France. But it also made Clive all the more determined to be a pilot and become a great ace himself — the finest fighter in the RAF! It was a great […]
The German troops rushed into view just as the Fairey Battle was taking off. Immediately they fired at the aircraft, desperate to prevent its escape. With bullets flying all around him, this would be the supreme test of the pilot’s nerve… but the man behind the controls was a self-confessed coward who had run from […]
Mike Boyd cursed his luck. He’d sworn to prove himself a better pilot than his greatest rival, Ian Harper, yet here he was dangling helplessly from his parachute and being guarded by a Curtiss Tomahawk piloted by… guess who? Yep, that man Harper! Story: Staff Art: Amador Cover: Ian Kennedy
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