1939-1945 20thcentury adventure adventures adversity aerial aerial-combat aerialoperations africa africa-safari african-safari air-combat air-force airplane airplanes alexandria ambition anecdotes army author auto-biography autobiographical autobiography aviation aviator beloved-books biographical biography boarding-life boarding-school bomber-command bombing bravery britain british british-author british-culture british-empire british-history british-literature captivating career childhood childhood-dreams childhood-experiences childhood-memories childrens-literature classic colonialism coming-of-age comradeship courage courageous creativity crete danger danish daring desert determination dreams east-africa enemy engineer england english entertaining equipmentandsupplies escapades escape escaping-danger escapism excitement exploration family fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace flying-officer friendship friendships funny going-solo greece growing-up growth heartwarming heroism historical history hitchhiking humor humorous imagination independence independent india inspiration inspiring journey kenya life-changing life-experiences life-lessons literary literature london loneliness longing mediterranean memoir memories middle-east migration military military-service mischief mombasa non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian norwegian-heritage nostalgia nostalgic novel p-40-curtiss-tomahawk p-40-tomahawk palestine parents passion perseverance personal-growth pilot pilot-training piloting pilots planes raf raf-hornchurch raf-pilot raf-squadron raf-training real-life-stories resilience risk roald-dahl royal-air-force royal-navy safari scandinavian second-world-war self-discovery solo solo-flying solo-travel south-america spies spitfire spy storytelling strategicforces success sudan survival syria tales tanganyika tanzania tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional unitedstates victory war war-experience war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experience wartime-experiences wartime-pilot wild-imagination wit witty world-war-ii worldwar writer writing wwii young-adult young-readers youth youthful-antics