Fighter Aces of the R.A.F.

by E.C.R. Baker

Only a boy when World War II broke out, E. C. R. Baker was gripped by the stories he heard of heroism in the skies as the Allies defeated the mighty Luftwaffe.

But in the years after the war, he was struck by how few of the RAF's legendary fighter aces could be named by the general public.

Some, whose feats in deadly aerial combat equaled or even surpassed those of the most famous pilots, were virtually unknown.

Baker set out to make this right, devoting many years of research to collecting the personal life stories and combat details of the nearly fifty RAF fighter pilots who each shot down and destroyed more than twenty hostile aircraft.

Compiled with the help of surviving pilots and members of their squadrons, Fighter Aces of the RAF is a riveting and powerful book which combines meticulous historical accuracy with vivid descriptions, and brings some truly great men the recognition they so richly deserved.

Genres: Audiobook, Aviation

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Billy Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not a waste of time but had the potential to be better than it was. Instead of detailing the individual combats undertaken by the pilots represented, the author chose to outline the combat and for the most part gloss over the action. It does not read like an actual first person pilots account of the incidents in question. Instead it reads as a third person account with several words and phrases overused and repetitive. The author does a fine job in tracing the career of the pilot(s) in question, but the descriptions lack the feel of the reader actually being there. You don't smell the gunpowder and actually feel like you are part of the action. Perhaps an accounting by a pilot who actually was in combat and part of the action would have been more rewarding.

[Billy Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not a waste of time. It told the story of the best of the British fighter pilots in World War II. It attempted to tell the story of each of these selected 40 pilots and their actions in detail. In the reading though, something was missing. The descriptions and the accounts related by the author seemed kind of "vanilla", almost as if he was retelling a baseball game from the scorecard. You didn't really feel like you were there in the cockpit with the pilot and could smell the cordite and gunpowder. Maybe individual books written by the pilots themselves would have rectified the situation. The book does serve as a basic summary of the combats and actions of the pilots in question. Missing, are what the pilots were doing when not in the cockpit.
The writing itself was also kind of vanilla and ho-hum. Over usage of words and phrases also took away from some of the story. Editing was also a factor. Missing words, wrong words and in cases bad grammar left the reader in a quandary as to what really happened. Going forward I feel that to get information on say a pilot like Pattle, might require a book written by the pilot or at least a close acquaintance.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Air Aces

This book is in many ways boring. It is chapter after chapter of stories of the exploits of the Airmen of the British forces during the Second World War. This book is a re-write of an earlier book. If I was into statistics,I would have given it more stars. The only way I was able to finish this book was to read a few chapters then another book and then return to this one

[Drasko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very repetitive. Some historical facts mispresented eg He 113 didn't exist (it was actually He 100 record breaking aircraft which was object of elaborate German charade to mislead RAF) so it couldn't be shot down by one of the aces!!. There are some other controversies which are plainly annoying.

[D.M. Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many aces

This is a workmanlike account of the careers of WW2 fighter pilots who shot down twenty or more enemy aeroplanes.
What struck me was the large number who were themselves killed.
Interesting but sad book.

[Vincent Chenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was written in the 60's when most of the heroes were still alive. Am not too sure that covering the 20+ kills of an ace is best dealt with in a single chapter of a book.

[Mark Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Some I hadn't heard of.