[Mike Kelly]

Another good read, or I should say listening experience, is the talking book ' The Silver Spitfire ' Recollections of a WW2 RAF pilot, the book relates his twelve months as a RAF liason officer attached to a USAAC fighter wing in the UK . The clash of cultures is described with many funny tales of good fortune . The job didn't have any clear boundaries and he spent much of his time skylarking around flying the aircraft allocated to the unit as communications aircraft.

The author , now well into his nineties , has a remarkable talent for recalling events of long ago. He often quotes dates and events from his flying log book. He describes the various aircraft and their flying characteristics , learning on the job . Just after D-Day, he landed his P51 on a improvised Omaha beach strip, walked around for 15 minutes and took off again. He would fly over from France to visit his parents for the weekend.The Silver Spitfire, a Mk 9 , was to become his own unofficial runabout, it was found abandoned and the camo was stripped off back to bare metal. . The USAAC wing surgeon was a keen aeroplane buff, he was given a few flying lessons and he was allowed to fly the units Norseman and Fairchild .