COURAGE IN THE SKIES, GREAT AIR BATTLES FROM THE SOMME TO DESERT STORM

 J.E. ‘Johnnie’ Johnson and P.B. ‘Laddie’ Lucas, Ltd. Editions 1994.

Johnnie Johnson, the Royal Air Force’s outstanding wing leader in World War 2, became the Allies top scoring ace on the Western Front with a total of 38 enemy aircraft destroyed. Apart from his individual success which brought him 3 DSOs and two DFCs, and several foreign decorations, Johnson’s aggressive command of the brilliant Canadian formations, allied with his acute tactical mind, placed him at the forefront of fighter leaders of two World Wars.

Laddie Lucas rose in two years from aircraftman 2^nd class, the lowest rank in the Royal Airforce, to command of No. 249 Fighter Squadron at the height of the battle of Malta in 1942. He was then 26. In three tours of operational flying, interspersed with two spells as a command headquarters staff officer, Lucas led two Spitfire squadrons and a wing on the Western Front in 1943 before switching to command a Mosquito squadron during the Allied drive through north-west Europe in 1944 and 45. He was awarded the DSO and bar, DFC and the French Croix de Guerre. An excellent book by two of Britain’s great aces.

No dust jacket, rather glossy pictorial boards, other than for a pencilled inscription on the fep, both the book and it’s dust jacket are in excellent condition, as new