Category: Biography Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd
ISBN-10: 0470835907
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 272
Copyright: 1 April 2005
The life stories from childhood to old age, as told to and interpreted by author Wayne Ralph, of Canada`s fighter pilots in the Second World War, with historical and contemporary photography.
These are the stories that flyers only told each other, until now. The candid revelations of men at the end of life about the meaning of aerial combat and its influence on their post-war lives. A retelling of the sad, foolish, and transcendent experiences that defined and marked a generation. Photos of childhood and wartime accompanied by portraits by the author.
Excerpt
...The mid-upper gunner was not dead; he was sitting inside the flames. The next thing I saw the gun traversing down towards us. I broke as fast as I could, but he put forty rounds of 13mm cannon shells into us. I had pistons blown out of one engine and the constant speed unit blown out in the other. We were going to bail out, but they could not have rescued us...so we brought that aircraft back to Bradwell Bay and I can tell you it never flew again...I could see the engines running red hot; one was actually running on molten metal...the whole thing glowing inside....my navigator was wounded, bleeding from the face
The story of Ron Hull, paralyzed in a surgical accident back in the dreaded polio epidemic days, was able to overcome most of the stigma and stereotypes and "pass for normal" for 30 years. As Ron's paralysis increased gradually through the next 20
This book has been eight years in the making. It is mostly a jumble of thoughts written down in old spiral notebooks and hidden in the bottom drawer underneath various manuals for software packages and hardware long since turned obsolete.
The story of Ron Hull, paralyzed in a surgical accident back in the dreaded polio epidemic days, was able to overcome most of the stigma and stereotypes and "pass for normal" for 30 years. As Ron's paralysis increased gradually through the next 20
