THE INVISIBLE THREAD - A Spitfire's Tale by Sarkar, Dilip

Ramrod Publications, Malvern Wells, 1992. UK first edition, Hard Cover with dust jacket, 6 x 9, ix, 200 pages, FINE/FINE CONDITION, illus, appendices, bibliog.------------------------------------------------On Sunday, 11th May, 1941, Pilot Officer Franek Surma's Spitfire, R6644, of 308 (Polish) Fighter Squadron suffered an engine fire over Malvern, Worcestershire. Only after he had steered his doomed machine away from the built-up area below, however, did the young pilot abandon "ZF-H" to its fate and make a safe parachute descent. The following month saw 308 heavily committed on a daily basis to offensive operations over enemy occupied France; the action was hectic and casualties were high. Franek Surma, an "ace" and one of the Few, would not survive. On November 8th, 1941, he failed to return from Circus 110, a daylight bomber escort sortie, and remains officially "missing" to this day. No idea could he have had then, however, that fifty years on another young man, born twenty years after R6644's final flight, would become so inspired with the Pole's courage and fascinated by R6644's story that this research epic would be published.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------The author transports the reader back in time to Britain's darkest days and relates in detail the often moving stories of the twenty-five young men known to have flown R6644, now linked together as if by an invisible thread. Packed with the first hand accounts of surviving pilots, the stories take us from the Battle of Britain across the globe to VE Day. Following an exciting reconstruction of R6644's dramatic demise, Dilip Sarkar studies Franek Surma's life and service in detail, culminating in a real piece of detective work identifying the German fighter pilot responsible for his untimely death in action. He then tells us of the Malvern Spitfire Team's highly successful research, recovery, memorial and exhibition projects providing an example of aviation archaeology par excellence. Eighty-two, largely previously unpublished photographs, illustrate The Invisible Thread.The Invisible Thread is not just another Spitfire book, but destined to be remembered as amongst the most original ever published..