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Автор: Ian Darling
Издательство: Ingram
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Жанр произведения: Техническая литература
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isbn: 9781770705739
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       AMAZING AIRMEN

       AMAZING AIRMEN

       CANADIAN FLYERS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

       IAN DARLING

      Copyright © Ian Darling, 2009

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

      Project Editor: Michael Carroll

       Copy Editor: Cheryl Hawley

       Design: Courtney Horner

       Printer: Webcom

       Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Darling, Ian, 1948-

       Amazing airmen : Canadian flyers in the Second World War / by Ian Darling.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

       ISBN 978-1-55488-424-7

      1. World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, Canadian. 2. Canada.

       Royal Canadian Air Force--Biography. 3. Great Britain. Royal Air Force--Biography.

       I. Title.

      D792.C2D37 2009 940.54’4971

       C2009-902464-0

      2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09

      We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

      Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

       J. Kirk Howard, President

      Published by The Dundurn Group

       Printed and bound in Canada.

       www.dundurn.com

Dundurn Press 3 Church Street, Suite 500Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1M2 Gazelle Book Services Limited White Cross Mills High Town, Lancaster, England LA1 4XS Dundurn Press 2250 Military Road Tonawanda, NY U.S.A. 14150

       For Jane Ann

      CONTENTS

       5 Final Descent

       6 The Ground War

       7 The Luckiest Guy

       8 The Corporal’s Ring

       9 The Fog of War

       10 The Last Training Flight

       11 A Ride with Fifi

       12 The Escort

       13 Flying Lessons

       14 The Long Fall

       15 The Lucky Gunner

       16 A Student in Paris

       17 Eagles at War

       18 The Salute

       19 A Plane for Tomorrow

       20 Between the Lines

       Notes

       Acknowledgements

       Index

      Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.

      — Winston Churchill, My Early Life

      With hindsight, I know exactly where and when I started this book. I was driving back to my newspaper in Kitchener at 4:30 p.m., November 11, 2002. I had just attended the funeral for my uncle, George Darling. He was a bomb-aimer on a Halifax bomber during the Second World War, and his pilot, Tom Lane, had delivered the eulogy.

      As I drove on Highway 8, just outside of Kitchener, I realized that I didn’t know much about what my uncle had done during the war. I knew he had been shot down somewhere in Europe and that he had been a prisoner of war, but I didn’t know what happened to his bomber or what ordeals he had suffered. I decided to learn the details and write a story for my newspaper about him and his crew. I pieced the story together by reading his wartime diary and by interviewing Tom, as well as another member of the crew, Roy Macdonald. The Record printed the story a year later, a few days before Remembrance Day, 2003.

      I thought I had finished writing about the war. Much to my surprise, I received phone calls and email messages encouraging me to write a book of similar stories. One such message came from Richard Rohmer, a Second World War pilot and a prolific writer. Apparently, I had erred in thinking that I had finished writing about the war.

      That was six years ago. Since then, I have spoken to air force veterans who experienced horrific ordeals, and I have interviewed historians and archivists who provided additional information that I needed.

      I hope this book is worthy of those who encouraged me to write it. Even more important, I hope it is worthy