FLIGHT to FREEDOM
Lieutenant General Pilot Baron Michel 'Mike' G. L. Donnet DFC
Signed by Lieutenant General Baron Mike Donnet DFC
Signed and dated on the front end paper
Lt General Mike Donnet DFC
14 June 1975
Ian Allen First Edition 1974. 108 pages and lots of photos.
A Near Fine condition hardback book with a Fine condition unclipped dustjacket.
Lt Gen Baron Mike Donnet made a dramatic escape from his native Belgium in 1941 then served in the RAF throughout the war as a fighter pilot commanding 64 and 350 Squadrons and the Bentwaters Mustang Wing. He later held senior appointments in the Belgian Air Force and in NATO.
After the German invasion of Belgium, Donnet, a cadet pilot, was held captive in Germany for seven months. Then he and his Belgian squadron colleagues were released and returned to Brussels. Donnet and a friend, Leon Divoy, were determined to carry on the fight and made plans to escape to Britain. They discovered an old Stampe SV-4b biplane (similar to a Tiger Moth) in a hangar in the grounds of a heavily guarded German depot. It was intact but needed considerable attention to make it airworthy.
The incredible story of their escape to England forms the first half of the book whilst the second half is an account of the remainder of Mike’s eventful wartime flying career.
A great flying memoir of WWII, especially signed.