A Willingness to Die (Military History Series) [Hardcover]

Brian Kingcome (Author), Peter Ford (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Military History Series | Publication Date: May 1999

In 1938 Brian Kingcome joined the RAF with a permanent commission and was posted to No.65 Fighter Squadron at Hornchurch, soon to be equipped with the Spitfire, and so it came about that Brain flew the Spitfire throughout the war. He became acting CO for No.92 Squadron at Biggin Hill and led over sixty operations., achieving the highest success rate of any squadron in the Battle of Britain. In May 1943 Brian joined Desert Air Force in Malta and took command of 244 Wing. At this time he was confirmed Flight Lieutenant, acting Squadron Leader, acting Wing Commander and at twenty-five was one of the youngest Group Captains in the Royal Air Force. Brian Kingcome may have been the last Battle of Britain Pilot of repute to put his extraordinary story into print; looked upon by other members of his squadron as possibly their finest pilot, his nonetheless unassuming memoirs are related with a subtle and compassionate regard for a generation who were, as he felt, born to a specific task. Brian's memoirs have been edited and introduced by Peter Ford, ex- National Serviceman in Malaya.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 187 pages
• Publisher: Tempus (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752416936
• ISBN-13: 978-0752416939
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,084,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's weird, September 7, 2009

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M. Fonseca "carmarthen" (Thunder) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Willingness to Die: Memories from Fighter Command (Paperback)

The good point here is that Brian shares some very profound thoughts and teories about life, death, etc, with the readers.

But,a s for air combat, there is very, very little, to the point of being a dissapointment. But, we soon get the feeling that Kingcome think that he's not even close to a hero or that exploit behind a fighter plane are not so majestic as people think.

The catch, however, is that I bought this book for the fighter action! You can have a book where the pilot shares his thoughts and, at the same time, there is plenty of action (Clostermann's "The Big Show" and Godfrey's "The Look of Eagles" come to mind). But this one utterly ignore fighter action.

Anyway, it's good because it's different.