Soldier in the Cockpit

by Ron Pottinger

"I could see a carpet of twinkling lights from the ack ack all along the rail sidings which bordered the canal. I dove onto these with my cannons going. Then suddenly, when the attention of all the guns turned on me, I realized how foolhardy I was being. I ran the guns along the row of rail trucks--opened the throttle wide and pulled straight up for the clouds--with tracers crossing in front and on all sides of the plane."

Ron Pottinger started the war as a rifleman in the Royal Fusiliers, then transferred to the Royal Air Force, where he began flying the 7.5-ton Hawker Typhoon. He flew dozens of dangerous ground attack missions over occupied Europe through bad weather, heavy flak, and enemy fighters before being shot down and taken prisoner.

244 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2007

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wartime memoir that the author meant for his sons and grandchildren. The war was something that Pottinger had largely put behind him. Like many of his generation, his focus, after he was discharged, was to get on with life and live it to the full, with gratitude. For anyone who has a grandfather or father (as I have) who fought in the Second World War, this is understandable. The subject of the war, if it comes up at all, is either brushed aside or talked about in terms of its lighter moments shared with comrades and civilians in various parts of the world where one served.

Pottinger's war was a long one. Conscripted into the army in 1939, within 2 years, he had mananged to secure a transfer to the Royal Air Force, where he was trained as a pilot (in Florida, part of the training scheme underwritten by the U.S., which trained British aircrew). Upon completion of training, he returned to Britain, where he was assigned to a fighter squadron flying Hawker Typhoons, a fighter found to be ideal for carrying out ground attack missions.

Pottinger flew numerous combat sorties til he was shot down over Germany on New Year's Day, 1945. He spent 4 months in a POW camp, enduring many hardships. It is books like these which serve as a sober reminder of how horrible war is in terms of lives lost, communities shattered, and how for its survivors, war leaves marks that can never be erased.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about a British soldier who leaves the infantry to become a pilot in the RAF. Unfortunately, there isn't much combat so I was a bit disappointed by that. However, the book is a pretty quick read and provides lots of background and insight into the Hawker Typhoon fighter plane, as well as just how mundane life could be for a fighter pilot. It's not all blasting three Messerschmitts out of the sky everyday or shooting up columns of troops and armor. At least there's some aerial combat against the German V-1 rockets to liven things up a bit. The final part of the book deals with the author's experience as a POW and is fairly detailed.

Not a bad read overall, just not much action.

[Peter Jowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. Very pleased that his son pushed him to write it!