Christopher Shores - Aces High, Volume 1. A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth...

The main contributors to this revised edition have been the pilots themselves, or their families. More than 300 have responded during recent years, providing access to logbooks and diaries, answering questions and laying open their private photo collections to the lens of our cameras. It would be invidious to single out only a few for thanks, but impracticable to list them all here, for they are within the body of the book. Gentlemen, each and every one of you, our grateful thanks. There is one to whom we do offer a particular debt of gratitude however, for he did much to facilitate the tracing of others, pursuing them on our behalf whenever necessary. This was Rod Smith, who generously used his own position within the Canadian Fighter Pilots Association to our great advantage. He telephoned frequently (from Vancouver!), offering encouragement and bringing his acute understanding to bear on some of the problems we encountered. Thanks too, to Air Vice-Marshal Johnnie Johnson for kindly agreeing to write the Foreword to this new edition.

The aviation fraternity have been as supportive as ever. Particular thanks are due to close colleagues and friends Frank Olynyk, Russell Guest, John Foreman, Brian Cull, Norman Franks, Chris Thomas, David Brown, Paul Sortehaug, Michael Schoeman, Dilip Sakar, Leal Kerr and Reg Wyness. Amongst the European nations whose airmen flew with the RAF, assistance of great worth was received from Jean-Louis Roba in Belgium, Tomas Polak in the Czech Republic and Bjorn Olsen in Norway. Norman Franks wife, Heather, and Chris Shores secretary, Sally-Anne Follett-Smith, dealt marvellously with the word processing of the vast manuscript within a painfully tight deadline. Our publisher, John Davies, his partner Anne Dolamore, and their assistant, Edward Ripley, were better friends, and more helpful, understanding and co-operative participants in this venture than any authors could reasonably hope for or expect.

Thanks too are due to the medal collectors, who were generous in providing many photographs and much information from pilots logbooks in their possession. These were Chris John, Chris James, Simon Muggleton, Graham Saunders and Nick Carter.

Our wives, Marion Shores and Judy Williams, have as ever been patient and supportive despite the constant interruptions to normal family and social life, and towards our restricted involvement in domestic life, which the preparation and writing of such a book in our spare time, imposes.

As we go to press, we have collected far more photographs than is practicable to include within this already-large volume. Additionally, after more than 30 years research it is clear that a work of this nature can never really be considered complete and 100% correct. We shall continue to look for additional information, and hopefully if any readers find they can add to or correct any matters included herein or indeed, missing therefrom we hope they will contact us forthwith.

It is our intention to follow this volume with a much slimmer addendum in 12 months time. This will include a large selection of additional photographs of the pilots, together with any additions or corrections which have come to hand in the intervening period.

If you know something we do not; if you have access to a logbook we have not seen, or if you have unpublished photographs of any of the pilots (or of their aircraft) please do let the publishers know at once.

June 1994
CFS and CW