âA brilliant first-hand account of the life of a fighter pilotâ in World War II (The Spectator). Â Spitfire Pilot was written in 1940 in the heat of battle, when the RAF stood alone against the might of Hitlerâs Third Reich. It is a tremendous personal account of one of the fiercest and most idealized air conflictsâthe Battle of Britainâseen through the eyes of a pilot of the famous 609 Squadron, which shot down over one hundred planes in that epic contest. Â Often hopelessly outnumbered, David Crook and his colleagues, in their state-of-the-art Spitfires, committed acts of unimaginable bravery against the Messerschmitts and the Junkers. Many did not make itâand Crook describes the absence they leave in the squadron with great poignancy. Â Includes an introduction by historian Richard Overy
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