WINGS AFLAME — The Biography of Group Captain Victor Beamish DSO and bar, DFC, AFC
Prix régulier 30,00 € TTC 6%
Characteristics
| ISBN-13 | 9780718305567 |
| ISBN-10 | 0718305566 |
| Book cover finish(es) | Hardcover ( rounded spine binding ) |
| Special Features | • Dust jacket |
| Condition | Like NEW |
| Author(s) | Doug Stokes |
| Publisher | William Kimber & Co. Limited |
| Number of pages | 192 |
| Published date | 1985 |
| Language(s) | English |
| Size | 15.5 x 24 x 2 cm |
| Categorie(s) | • BIOGRAPHIES • AVIATION MILITAIRE • SECONDE GUERRE MONDIALE |
Description
Victor Beamish was a legendary fighter station commander during the Battle of Britain, flying more operational sorties than the much younger men under his command. He was Irish and nearly twice the age of some of the younger pilots. Beamish had been a star cadet and sportsman at RAF Cranwell in the early days of the famous flying college, and later became an aerobatic ace with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Tragedy struck when he was invalided out of the Royal Air Force with tuberculosis in the early 1930s. With great courage he fought his way back to full fitness and re-entered the RAF two years before the outbreak of World War II.
During the Battle of Britain, at the age of thirty-seven, Victor Beamish flew an incredible 126 fighter sorties. Many of these were solo missions, flying alone in a Hawker Hurricane searching for targets. He was decorated three times for courage in combat and proved a constant inspiration to the men under his command.
However, he was not without flaws. He believed in doing things entirely his own way and frequently refused to remain on the ground. He became a great favourite of Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, who commanded RAF Fighter Command No. 11 Group after the Battle of Britain. Beamish later joined Leigh-Mallory’s headquarters staff but, at his own insistence, was given command of another operational fighter station in 1942, by which time he was thirty-eight years old.
On a chance patrol, Beamish discovered the German battle fleet — the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen — during the famous Channel Dash, as they sailed up the English Channel in daylight. Shortly afterwards he was killed in action while leading the men of his fighter wing.
Victor Beamish was a Protestant Irishman and, had he wished, could have stayed out of the war. But he was a career officer of the Royal Air Force, and he fought to win.