Christopher Shores - Aces High, Volume 2. A Further Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and...

When we published the revised edition of Aces High in summer 1994, an Authors Special Note was included, indicating our intention to follow the book with a slimmer addendum volume some 12 months later to incorporate additional photographs and any additions or corrections in regard to the published information which might have come to hand. In the light of this, readers with any such information or illustrations were encouraged to advise the publishers accordingly. The response has been overwhelming, and far from producing a slim addendum, now some four years later a much more substantial Volume II has been produced.

Even now, as the new manuscript goes to press, there remain some pilots regarding whom I would dearly have loved to be able to record more details. However, the list of my mystery men, as I have termed them, has shrunk very considerably.

Some preamble is, as usual, necessary before launching into the body of the book. Sadly, my long time friend and colleague, Clive Williams, was not able to join me in the work for this volume, due to failing health which has greatly constrained his life in recent years. However, help from other sources has been splendid, and there are a number of people who I have singled out for particular thanks.

In the Acknowledgements section of the 1994 book it was most remiss of me to have overlooked the very considerable contribution of Michel Lavigne of Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada, who sent to me a host of photocopies of relevant logbooks, particularly of Canadian pilots thank you, Michel, and my apologies for such an oversight. Since that time, the involvement of Bruce Burton has been preeminent. His skill in identifying the background, home town, etc of numerous pilots has been of tremendous help. Therese Angelo, Museum Research Officer at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum, filled in virtually all the remaining gaps regarding New Zealanders, many of which gaps had already been narrowed by my friend of many years, Paul Sortehaug of Dunedin. Indeed, Pauls own recently-published history of 486 Squadron, The Wild Winds, was also of great assistance.

Similar assistance regarding the Australian gaps came from the Australian Department of Defences Discharged Personnel Records Department, through the good offices of Mr D.Pullen. The Veterans Affairs Department and the Personnel Records Section of the National Archives of Canada both helped to the extent that they were able, given the limitations of Canadas restrictive Privacy Act. My thanks are due to them for their efforts; there are, however, a few gaps remaining in regard to certain RCAF personnel. I am also extremely grateful to Sebastian Cox, Head of Air Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, and to his colleague, Clive Richards, for their help and support in pointing me in the right direction to discover more details of my fellow-countrymen who served in the Royal Air Force.

Great assistance was also provided in regard to the Belgians by Guy Destrebeq of Brussels, and in regard to the French by Christian-Jacques Ehrengardt. Others who were particularly helpful with regard to the numbers of British pilots both with information and/or photographs, were Barry Marsden, who specialises in pilots with a Derbyshire background, I.Tavender, historian of those airmen awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, Peter Sharpe, Wg Cdr D.R.Collier-Webb, RAF Retd, Wg Cdr A.Brookes, BA, MBA, FRSA, RAF (regarding 85 Squadron), Don Minterne (regarding 73 Squadron), Peter Hall (regarding 91 Squadron), Reg Wyness (regarding 111 Squadron and certain Czech pilots), Ian Piper (regarding 605 Squadron), Nicholas Thomas, Andrew Long, Roy Nesbit, and my friend John Young, Historian of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, and himself an ex-Spitfire pilot who came close to qualifying for inclusion in Aces High.

Thomas F.Semenza of Connecticut, USA, checked all the aircraft serials in the individual pilots claim lists, advising where there were obvious anomalies, discrepancies, or printing errors, the majority of which I have been able to resolve for this volume. Continued help was received from old friends Dilip Sarkar and Brian Cull; the latters masterly Ten Days in May proved to be a piece of research that provided much more detail of those ill-recorded early engagements in France in May 1940. Similar help has been forthcoming from Russell Guest and Frank Olynyk, both of whom have undertaken further research on my behalf whilst staying at my home in London, and whilst in their native countries of Australia and the USA. John Jack Foreman has also aided me in my researches, and I have obtained further considerable assistance from Michael Schoeman in South Africa.

Another new friend whose contribution has added immensely to the coverage that has now been possible in regard to the Polish pilots dealt with, is Wojtek Matusiak of Warsaw, who has contributed much both in terms of information and photographs for publication. In this he was greatly assisted by Robert Gretzyngier and Jozef Zielinski.

Finally, as always, my deepest gratitude goes to those pilots who provided details regarding themselves, and to the families of others who are sadly no longer with us. They are far too numerous to list here, and it would be invidious to name some at the risk of forgetting others. You know who you are, and the content of the book which follows speaks for itself in regard to the assistance you have all given me. My most grateful thanks to you all. There is just one who I must mention and express particular thanks to however; that is Jack Haddon, who in addition to assistance regarding his own activities, also provided me with a magnificent set of photographs illustrating a considerable number of the pilots included herein and in the previous volume, most of which have been incorporated in this volume.

In conclusion, apologies to those readers who have expected this book at an earlier date (including my long-suffering publisher, John Davies !). I regret that work on two previous books, coupled with a disastrous crash of my previous computer at a critical moment, the pressures of my day job as a director of DTZ Debenham Thorpe, and perhaps above all the slowing-down caused by the onset of more advanced years, have conspired to push back completion of the manuscript until now.

THE DOGS OF WAR

Rushing through the arcane halls,

Down the comdors of space,

Came with sudden fearsome horror,

Swift with flashing crooked crosses,

Thrusting forward massive bosses,

Came from out the sun the Hun,

Came in packs the dreaded Hun.

Swiftly fling the wings asunder