- English
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eBook - ePub
About this book
Pitched into the maelstrom of air fighting in the summer of 1940, twenty-four-year-old Gordon Olive barely lived to tell this extraordinary tale of courage and endurance. As Britain fought alone for its survival, 'the Few' of RAF Fighter Command took to the air grievously outnumbered, many reaching breaking point, exhausted physically and mentally by unreleting, intense combat. Gordon Olive flew the iconic Spitfire for over 125 missions above London and the south-east in the white heat of the aerial battle for supremacy of the skies. One of the most heavily engaged pilots of the Battle, he shot down ten enemy aircraft. This is his story of what it was like to dogfight with Messerschmitts at speeds of 400 mph, experiencing G forces close to blackout, at one moment to be drenched in sweat with exertion, the next to be freezing at 25,000 feet, to smell the cordite of your own fighter's machine guns and feel cannon shells explode against the back of your armoured seat. Illustrated in colour with forty unique paintings of the aerial battle of summer 1940 by the author.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Spitfire Ace by Gordon Olive, Dennis Newton in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Military & Maritime History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 - Point Cook Cadet
- 2 - Royal Air Force
- 3 - Awakening to Danger
- 4 - War Clouds Gathering
- 5 - Phoney War
- 6 - Hitler on the Move
- 7 - Missing over Dunkirk
- 8 - Preparing for Invasion
- 9 - Channel Duels
- 10 - Fatigue and Fire
- 11 - Ordeal at Manston
- 12 - Death in August
- 13 - Fight to the Death
- 14 - North
- 15 - Winter Patrols
- 16 - Fighter Controller
- 17 - Night Fighter
- 18 - Breaking Point
- 19 - Unwanted Prodigals
- 20 - Australia’s Pacific War
- Picture Section
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Glossary & Abbreviations
- Appendix 1: Australian Cadets Who Sailed to Join the RAF in January 1937
- Appendix 2: Combat Claims of F/Lt Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive DFC, 65 Squadron RAF
- Appendix 3: Distinguished Flying Cross Citation
- Appendix 4: BBC Broadcast Script for F/Lt Saunders and F/Lt Olive, 4 October 1940
- Appendix 5: BBC Broadcast Script for S/Ldr Gordon Olive DFC, 24 September 1943
- Appendix 6: Gordon Olive’s No. 456 RAAF Squadron
- Appendix 7: Logbook Entries, July–December 1940
- List of Illustrations