'Warrior-In-Waiting'

The book paints a picture of air force life in the 40s, 50s & 60s, including the period when the Cold War nearly became the opposite. "One of the Wellingtons had begun an overshoot, but as the engines reached full power the nose had shot skywards, the aircraft had climbed for a moment then stall-turned into the ground and burned. As they started the overshoot, the instructor had taken the backthrust from the elevators, and his backrest had broken away under the strain, sending him over backwards, still holding the wheel. That was all that it had taken to kill three men." "A manoeuvre to practise in the simulator was the escape. They would need to be five miles away at bomb-burst and running away from the pressure wave but some had not thought it through. Survival required an instant tight, diving turn while closing the bomb doors and pushing the aircraft to its limiting speed. Less imaginative captains would ask how far away they were at bomb-burst and I would reply "Three-quarters of a mile."