Funnily enough, there are two famous ‘Johnnie’ Johnsons from WW2. One being Johnny Johnson, the last surviving member of 617 squadron who took part in the Dam Busters raid and the other is Air-Vice Marshal ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, the man officially credited with being the top-scoring Allied fighter pilot of WW2 and the first Allied pilot to land his Spitfire on French soil after D-Day.
Following on from our piece on Roald Dahl, we thought we’d share another of our favourite biographies, Wing Leader, the tail of a Leicestershire man who began the war as a sergeant pilot in the Volunteer Reserve and who went on to become one of WW2’s most celebrated fighter pilots.
If you haven’t got a dog-eared, weather-beaten copy that you’ve returned to time-after-time, year-after-year then you need to add a copy to your Christmas list, as simply put, Wing Leader is required reading for anyone with a passion for vintage aviation.
Bogged down in dates, facts and historical analysis, some books can leave you cold, but not so Wing Leader. First published in 1956, it's chock full of fantastically exciting stories of flight tests, operations, aerial engagements and legendary characters. It’s a fabulous account of what…