CARRIER PILOT

Signed on the half title page by

Norman Hanson

Patrick Stephens Ltd First Edition 1979.  255 pages plus photos

Near Fine condition hardback book. Clean, bright and tight in a Fine condition unclipped dustjacket.  A pleasing copy of this book.

This gripping story is an amusing and very readable account of what it was really like to serve as a fighter pilot in the Royal Navy during World War II. It describes training both in the UK and with the US Navy in America; the attitude of Americans to Britons, showing the vivid change after Pearl Harbour; the camaraderie of aircrews within the close confines of an aircraft carrier; and the incredibly high risks and accidents involved in carrier flying.

There are good descriptions of flying the Corsair and the book shows the tension of aerial combat and landing on a small unstable platform in the middle of the ocean. The famous British aircraft carrier ILLUSTRIOUS, in which the author became a squadron commander, is described extensively. There is a vivid narrative of aircraft operations against the Japanese as enemy installations are strafed and Kamikaze fighters intercepted. It reads like a novel and moves at great pace from the day Norman Hanson was interviewed for entry to the morning when HMS Illustrious returned to Rosyth a few weeks before VJ Day.

“It has everything a war memoir should have.” – Len Deighton

A lovely signed first edition of this excellent book which is considered by many to be one of the best written about the Fleet Air Arm in the Second World War. Norman Hanson died in 1980, aged sixty six.