SMOKE TRAILS in the SKY
The journals of a Battle of Britain fighter pilot
Signed by Tony Bartley & Allan Wright
Signed on the title page by 92 Squadron pilots
Squadron Leader Tony Bartley DFC
Squadron Leader Neville Duke DSO DFC** AFC
Group Captain Allan Wright DFC* AFC
Squadron Leader Geoffrey Wellum DFC
Crecy revised edition 1997. 208 pages and well illustrated with photos
Fine condition hardback book in a Fine condition dustjacket. Clean, bright, tight and feels unread. A superb copy.
Tony Bartley epitomised the young, dashing RAF fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain. He author learned to fly in 1938 and joined the RAF the following year first being posted to 92 Squadron, flying Spitfires. He was credited with 8 victories during the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain before joining 74 Squadron as a flight commander in March 1941.
He spent a rest period as a flying instructor and then as a production test pilot at Vickers Supermarine before returning to operations in February 1942 as a flight commander with 65 Squadron and then in May he became the Squadron’s CO. The following August he was appointed to command 111 Squadron in North Africa and he returned to the UK in January 1943 after the end of his tour and flew with the Americans over the D-Day landings. After the war he married the famous actress Deborah Kerr.
Allan Wright was a friend and colleague on 92 Squadron during the summer of 1940. He had a very distinguished RAF career being an ace with 11+ victories and was awarded two DFCs and an AFC.
Geoffrey Wellum, known as ‘Boy’, was the junior pilot on 92 Squadron. Besides being its last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, he wrote the best selling memoir ‘First Light’.
Neville Duke joined the squadron a few weeks after the official end of the Battle of Britain and learned his trade from all of the above pilots. He had an illustrious career, later re-joining 92 Squadron as CO in the Western Desert where he was the top scoring allied pilot.
A fantastic quadruple signed book. It gives a fascinating insight into the fabulous 92 Squadron through the eyes of one of its most extrovert characters.