This is a book of wartime memoirs telling the story of a typical young
Fleet Air Arm pilot in the
Second World War. It is also a sort of
epitaph to an aircraft – the famous Fairey Swordfish or, as its adoring
pilots called it, “The Stringbag” – one of the only two aircraft to
begin and end the War on active service.
Naval pilots during the
War were all officer cadets who held the rank of Naval Airman Second
Class while training. As soon as they got their wings, they became
commissioned officers as either - depending on their age – a Midshipman
or a Sub-Lieutenant. This book follows the life of a very ordinary Naval
Airman from the moment that he first applies to be a trainee pilot,
through his preliminary training at the cadet school in Gosport and his
flying training first in Detroit, Michigan, USA, then at Pensacola,
Florida, USA, until he finally gets his wings at Kingston, Ontario,
Canada.
Back in the UK for the completion of his training, our
Swordfish Man learns how to drop torpedoes, and spends almost a year
training Observers at Arbroath in Scotland, where he is voted “The pilot
the trainee observers most like to fly with”. He then volunteers for a
special night anti-submarine attacks training course, following which he
is posted to a front line squadron operating under the direction of RAF
Coastal Command from the Island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides.
Thence his squadron goes to Thorney Island in the English Channel
immediately following the Normandy landings and stays there until it
disbands several months later. His colleagues go on leave but he
replaces a pilot from another squadron killed on active duty and finds
himself on HMS Nairana making attacks on Norway and escorting convoys to
and from Murmansk.
Throughout the whole of this period, the
author does his best to “tell it as it was”, including an essentially
honest appraisal of his own feelings as far as he can judge them.
When
this second squadron also disbands, our author becomes a Batsman for a
further year teaching front line squadrons to land on the deck at night
as he and his forty-odd colleagues had done throughout the Murmansk
convoys.
About the Author
Leslie Paine was born in Bath in Somerset and educated at the City of Bath School.
After
the War, he continued his education at Oxford, reading English Language
and Literature at Pembroke College. He was then awarded a bursary by
the King Edward’s Hospital Fund to train as a hospital administrator and
served in a number of hospitals including Addenbrookes Hospital
Cambridge and the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals in London. He
spent thirty years as a senior hospital administrator, was awarded the
OBE in 1970, became a member of the King’s Fund Council and in 1976 was
elected to the Garrick Club.
Sadly Leslie Paine died in December 2013. Read his
obituary in The Telegraph.
Available from:
Amazon (Kindle Edition only)
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