Eagles of the RAF; The World War II Eagle Squadrons

Washington DC: National Defense University Press, 1991. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. Laszlo L. Bodrogi (Cover illustration). Illustrations. Appendix A. Eagle Personal Data. Appendix B. Eagle Squadron Bases and Operating Areas. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Name of previous owner stamped on dedication page and fore-edge. The author was a Permanent Professor and the Deputy Commandant for Military Instruction at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He did much of the research for and wrote much of this book while assigned as a Senior Fellow at the National Defense University. A Distinguished Graduate of the Reserve Officer Training Corps, Colonel Caine eared both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from Stanford University. He was a command pilot with more than 4,500 hours of flying time, having served flying tours with both Air Training Command and Air Defense Command. Colonel Caine also served as Acting Chief of Project CHECO in Vietnam. Colonel Philip D. Caine, US Air Force, tells how the Eagle Squadrons were formed, describes their RAF experiences, and evaluates their contribution to Britain's defense. Unlike other accounts, Eagles of the RAF is not simply a paean to the pilots as special heroes and "aces," though many performed heroically and some sacrificed their lives. Drawing almost exclusively on interviews with more than thirty-five surviving Eagles, on their letters and memoirs, and on official records of the squadrons, Caine shows who these men were and what drove them to endure the burdens of joining a foreign air force. We see them as they train, fly patrol and escort missions, and sit on alert in dispersal huts or in airplane cockpits. Beyond reliably telling the story, Colonel Caine reveals much about why people enter the military, how military life satisfies or disappoints their preconceptions, and how at least some of them reacted to the realities of combat."