Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1285358 in Books
• Published on: 1971-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 255 pages

From the Back Cover
A TRIUMPHANT STORY OF COMBAT IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

Johnny Kent grew up in Winnipeg and was bitten by the flying bug at an early age. He became the youngest licenced pilot in Canada when he was only seventeen. He grabbed experience and flying hours wherever and whenever he could and was constantly on the lookout for a career in flying. His chance came when he was offered a short service commission with the RAF in the 1930s.

He went on to become the leader of one of the most successful fighter squadrons in the Second World War. Group Captain Johnny Kent's skilful leadership helped the famous 303 Squadron to play such a decisive part in the Battle of Britain, and won him the highest Polish military award, the Virtuti Militari.

This is Captain Kent's own story of his life in the RAF - from his struggles as a boy in the wilds of Canada to get into the air, through his experiences as a test pilot at Farnborough and his constant efforts be flying wherever the action was. It is a story of triumphant achievement in combat and of a man whose air force career certainly picked him out as 'One of the Few.'

Customer Reviews

He just can't get enough of flying!
This is the autobiography of a Canadian who just cannot get enough of flying. He is already a proficient pilot by his late teens. To earn his keep, he goes on to fly in the RAF and eventually finds himself a test pilot and later, the CO of a Polish fighter squadron during the Battle of Britain. The Poles held a vendetta for Hitler and were more than a handful for him to control.

Perhaps the more interesting parts of his story are his test pilot exploits. He tells of his nerve-wrecking experience of testing with barrage balloons, where he flys, quite literally, into them and still manages to land his damaged craft for the scientists to inspect! Needless to say, losses in the test pilot squadrons are very high, but he survived to continue flying commercially after the war.