MALTA SPITFIRE - The Diary of a Fighter Pilot by Beurling, George F.; Roberts, Leslie

Lndon 1973, Arms & Armour press, UK reprint edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, FINE/FINE CONDITION ( 1 small closed tear in dj and price clipped & several words written on front free end paper ,) 235 pages, drawings................................................Twenty-five thousand feet above Malta—that is where the Spitfires intercepted the Messerschmitts, Macchis, and Reggianes as they swept eastward in droves, screening the big Junkers with their bomb loads. One of those Spitfire pilots was the Canadian George Beurling, who in fourteen flying days destroyed twenty-seven German and Italian aircraft, damaged eight others and probably destroyed three more. Malta Spitfire tells! Beurling's story and the story of the gallant Spitfire squadron which day after day climbed to the 'top of the hill' to meet the enemy with odds five- or ten-to one against.This is the story of a man—a much decorated veteran flyer at twenty-one—and of the defence of the most bombed patch of ground in the world. .....................................................................George Beurling learned to fly when he was a child, but in the autumn of 1939 he did not have enough 'book learning' to suit the standards of the Royal Canadian Air Force. It took three trips across the ocean on a munition ship before Beurling finally prised his way into the RAF. Then it was a year of hard training in England, initiation into combat tactics in sweeps across the Channel, and then Malta in the summer of 1942—and the official citation mentioning 'this officer (who) set an example in keeping with the highest tradition of the RAF'....................................................................Malta Spitfire is a fighter pilot's story told by a fighter pilot sitting at the controls of his aircraft. The reader has almost the sensation of actually being in the cockpit with Beurling, climbing to meet the planes that are driving in from Sicily, diving down through the fighter screen at the big Junkers, dodging four or five Macchis coming straight out of the sun, or whipping up under the belly of an Me for a deflection shot into the engine. This is modern war without sentiment or romance told in terms of human courage, skill and heroism by a modern warrior.