In this enjoyable memoir, Sam Wright looks back on his experiences in the RAF during World War II and subsequently as a civilian with a British national airline BOAC in the post-war years.
As a navigator with 254 Squadron, flying from RAF North Coates, Sam and his pilot formed the 2-man crew of a Bristol Beaufighter. As part of a Strike Wing their role was to attack enemy shipping in the North Sea, dropping torpedoes or bombs and strafing with the Beaufighter’s formidable fire-power. Sam does well to recapture the heady mix of thrills and anxiety involved in operational flying in the aircraft the Japanese would later nickname ‘Whispering Death’.
In 1946 Sam was seconded to BOAC, flying as a navigator in Avro York and Lancastrian aircraft on some of the airline's earliest operational passenger routes to Egypt and India. His recollections of this bygone era of civil aviation in the immediate postwar years provide many useful insights.