Carrier Pilot

Ref: 4630

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{detailed description}This book is unquestionably a cut above most wartime biographies; just a glance at the first few pages will convince even the most cynical reader. Written like a novel, the story moves with great pace and never ceases to entertain. It is a tale which, once begun, cannot easily be put down, for within its pages are the very excitement, fear, horror and pathos of fighting a war in the air.
Norman Hanson's gripping and honest story is both a humorous and a very readable account of what it was really like to serve as a fighter pilot in the Royal Navy during World War 2. With its wealth of detail and abundance of amusing anecdotes, the book gives an absorbing insight into the conversion of a civil servant to a flying sailor. It describes training both in the UK and with the US Navy in America; the attitude of Americans to Britons, showing the vivid change after Pearl Harbour; the camaraderie which existed among aircrews within the close confines of an aircraft carrier; the incredibly high risks involved in carrier flying; and the heartbreak of seeing close friends die in action.
For those readers who know little or nothing of aircraft or their operation from carriers, there is a mass of descriptive information which really puts you in the pilot's seat and shows not only the exhilaration of flying but also the gut-wrenching tension of aerial combat and of landing on a small, unstable and moving platform in the middle of the ocean. The famous British aircraft carrier Illustrious in which the author became a squadron commander is described lucidly and extensively, providing a vivid image of what it was like to live on and fly from these huge vessels.
The narrative of aircraft operations against the Japanese is exciting, amusing and moving. The reader is carried along, virtually as a passenger, in the cockpit of the author's fighter, as enemy installations are strafed and his Kamikaze fighters intercepted. Equally vivid are the descriptions of horrifying accidents both on the flight-deck and in the vicinity of the Fleet, including the author's own several hair's breadth escapes from death or disfigurement. The gradual deterioration in the squadrons' effectiveness through tiredness, tropical heat and general operational fatigue is also movingly told.
Supreme above all, however, is Norman Hanson's great affection for his big fighter, the Corsair (nicknamed the 'bent wing bastard from Connecticut'). It is obvious from the story that he was a true aficionado of that fine fighting machine which has emerged as one of the most successful carrier-borne aircraft of World War 2.
Lieutenant Commander (A) Norman Hanson, DSC, RNVR, was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, in 1914. Educated at Carlisle Grammar School, he entered local government service in 1932 and was transferred to the Civil Service two years later. He served in the Royal Navy (Fleet Air Arm) from early 1941 to March 1946. Trained by the US Navy at Pensacola, he served in HMS Illustrious, taking part in many operations against the Japanese, including the celebrated attack on the Palembang refineries and the air assault on the Sakishima group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Norman Hanson
published by PSL 1979 1st edn. 255pp illustrated, appendix, maps and drawings. 15x24
{condition}small inscription otherwise good inc. d/j.
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