Enemy Coast Ahead Quotes

“And Burpee, the Canadian? His English wife about to have a baby. His father who kept a large store in Ottawa. He was not coming back because they had got him, too. They had got him somewhere between Hamm and the target. Burpee, slow of speech and slow of movement, but a good pilot. He was Terry’s countryman, and so were his crew. I like their ways and manners, their free-and-easy outlook, their openness. I was going to miss them a lot”
― Wing Commander Guy P. Gibson VC DSO Bar DFC Bar, Enemy Coast Ahead [Illustrated Edition]

“As we passed on into the Ruhr Valley we came to more and more trouble, for now we were in the outer light-flak defences, and these were very active, but by weaving and jinking we were able to escape most of them. Time and again searchlights would pick us up, but we were flying very low and, although it may sound foolish and untrue when I say so, we avoided a great number of them by dodging behind the trees.”
― Wing Commander Guy P. Gibson VC DSO Bar DFC Bar, Enemy Coast Ahead [Illustrated Edition]

“And so I went to bed. I was the last one left, the last one out of a bunch of boys who belonged to 83 Squadron at the beginning of the war, to fight until the end of Hitlerism. They had all fought well, but they had paid the price. Some were prisoners of war, I knew, but many were dead. As I lay in bed thinking, I knew I was lucky to survive, but it would come to me any day now. We would go on and on until the whole squadron was wiped out, then there would be new boys to carry on our traditions, new squadrons, new gadgets and new ground crews to crack jokes with us as we took the air. I did not see any point in living. For the moment I didn’t even care about Eve. All my friends had gone now—there were new people—different—with different views on life, different jokes and different ways of living. I was the last one left.”
― Wing Commander Guy P. Gibson VC DSO Bar DFC Bar, Enemy Coast Ahead [Illustrated Edition]

“Those who have seen a Lancaster cockpit in the light of the moon, flying just above the earth, will know what I mean when I say it is very hard to describe. The pilot sits on the left of a raised, comfortably padded seat fitted with armrests. He usually flies the thing with his left hand, resetting the gyro and other instruments with his right, but most pilots use both hands when over enemy territory or when the going is tough. You have to be quite strong to fly a Lancaster.”
― Wing Commander Guy P. Gibson VC DSO Bar DFC Bar, Enemy Coast Ahead [Illustrated Edition]

“We must learn about politics. We must vote for the right things and not necessarily the traditional things. We want to see our country remain as great as it is today — forever. It all depends on the people, their commonsense and”
― Wing Commander Guy Gibson, Enemy Coast Ahead

“After many years they will probably slip and ask for disarmament so that they can do away with taxes and raise their standard of living. If the people forget, they bring wars on themselves, and they can blame no one but themselves. Yes, the decent people of this world”
― Wing Commander Guy Gibson, Enemy Coast Ahead