Book Description

The riveting firsthand account of an RAF pilot’s adventures in World War II—from life-and-death situations to unusual posts that test his usual good humor. After several years at sea, Sgt Bill Bailey arrived in Cairo in 1942 as a new recruit to the RAF, hoping to fulfill his ambition to fly bombers. Within hours of his arrival he is sent on his first bombing mission as second pilot in a 104 Squadron Wellington. Hit by enemy gunfire, his aircraft suffered continual loss of altitude until hitting a rock outcrop and disintegrating. Bailey came to lying alone on a precipitous ledge and soon realized that he was the sole survivor. To stay alive in temperatures of over 100 degrees, he trudged over seemingly endless dunes at dusk and dawn, his energy gradually fading. Though he ultimately found shelter in an abandoned German reconnaissance truck, he gradually resigned himself to death. But with a last desperate inspiration Bailey realized that it might be possible to attract attention by heliograph. He found enough equipment in the truck and rigged a mast with the mirror at the top and commenced signaling, eventually being rescued by a Long Range Desert Patrol. After recuperation, Bailey rejoined his squadron and was given a new crew with whom he completed his tour. He was then sent to Malta where much to his amazement he was made ground controller of a satellite fighter airfield. This is Bailey’s uniquely harrowing and humorous account of situations beyond his control—both in and out of the cockpit—during the Second World War.