In a voice both timeless and distinctly greatest generational, Parke F. Smith writes about being the last US pilot accepted into the ranks of the RAF via their training exchange program at War Eagle Field, Los Angeles. After completing their course, he sailed to England on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth, swore allegiance to the King, and was offered a coveted spot training as a fighter pilot. From 1942 to 1946, Smith flew 129 missions in North Africa, Italy, and over the North Sea, before returning home. Amazingly, blessedly, he made it home, unlike so many of his friends and comrades. It is to them he dedicated his writing. Smith's war stories are only the half of it. Smith is skilled at conveying the human connection and camaraderie that forms in war's trenches and skies. He has a way of revealing enduring universal truths through anecdotes made even more humorous from his perspective as a total outsider. Ultimately, Smith's is a story about finding home-no matter how foreign-and fighting for it with all you've got. Not only did Smith love the Spitfire aircraft, his true gift was how he lived his life: fiercely determined and passionate, a real spitfire.

Spitfire: An American WWII Fighter Pilot in the RAF

History

Smith, Parke F

Europe

Little Star

One of the few US pilots who spent the whole of his World War II flying career wearing a British RAF uniform, Parke Smith, from Richmond Virginia, volunteered to join the RAF in 1942 and went on to serve with distinction in three operational RAF squadrons ~ 253 Squadron (Africa 1943); 225 Squadron (Italy 1943/44) and 65 Squadron (UK 1944/45) ~ flying Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs in a variety of roles.\nComing from the USA, Parke found Britain and the British to be full of surprises and his entertaining book presents an enlightening outsider's perspective on many aspects of wartime life in the RAF and the UK in general as well as recording his varied and eventful flying experiences.

A Virginian in Best Blue: A US Pilot in the Wartime RAF

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Woodfield Publishing

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