-'Realistic... vivid... what it is like to be under fire four miles up in the sky' NEW YORK TIMES. -First published in 1941, Arthur Donahue was forced to use pseudonyms for his fellow fighter pilots by the wartime censor, this new illustrated edition published by Spitfire Publishers in October 2019 reveals their real names for the first time. -An exceptional memoir by a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot who shot down three enemy aircraft. -Includes a newly written introduction, glossary and set of biographies of Donahue's ...
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-'Realistic... vivid... what it is like to be under fire four miles up in the sky' NEW YORK TIMES. -First published in 1941, Arthur Donahue was forced to use pseudonyms for his fellow fighter pilots by the wartime censor, this new illustrated edition published by Spitfire Publishers in October 2019 reveals their real names for the first time. -An exceptional memoir by a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot who shot down three enemy aircraft. -Includes a newly written introduction, glossary and set of biographies of Donahue's fellow pilots and their fate written by historian Jonathan Reeve author of BATTLE OF BRITAIN VOICES ('A valuable contribution' BBC WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE MAGAZINE). Based on diaries written between sorties during the Battle of Britain, American 'Art' Donahue's fighter pilot memoir is an outstanding true story. In June 1940 he was living on his parents' dairy farm in rural Minnesota. Already a trained pilot, he heard the RAF needed pilots and believing the war against Nazism was also America's fight, he travelled to England risking jail and the loss of his citizenship for breaking US neutrality laws. By the end of July he was flying Spitfires with 64 Squadron in the skies over South East England - the white heat of the Battle of Britain. Art endured a relentless summer and autumn of dawn patrols. He survived dogfights and the harrowing experience of being shot out of the sky by a Messerschmitt 109 - canon shells and machine-gun rounds hammering the back of his armour-plated seat. He would personally account for three enemy aircraft destroyed.ABOUT THE AUTHORArthur 'Art' Donahue was born in St Charles, Minnesota on 29 January 1913. Fascinated by flying from an early age he gained his pilot's license at 19. In 1940 he heard that pilots were being enlisted in Canada for the RAF. He travelled to Canada and, claiming to be Canadian, was accepted and ten days later sailed for Great Britain. Six days after landing he was in England on an accelerated RAF training scheme for urgently needed pilots to replace those being lost in the early stages of the Battle of Britain. He joined 64 Squadron on 3 August 1940 flying Spitfires. Art was now part of a very small band of Americans who ignored their country's neutral status to join the fight against Hitler in the Battle of Britain. He wrote up TALLY-HO! in the early summer of 1941 and it was published in America in August 1941. A British edition followed in 1942. Art was killed in action on 11 September 1942 attempting to intercept a Junkers Ju 88 off Ostend. His Spitfire was hit by return fire and he ditched in the Channel. His body was never recovered, he was 29.PRAISE FOR TALLY-HO!'Realistic... vivid... what it is like to be under fire four miles up in the sky' NEW YORK TIMES'A thrilling firsthand account' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'At last a Spitfire pilot's own story... a thrilling story' THE SUNDAY MIRROR'Delightfully told' THE OBSERVER'A record of historical value... an absorbing story' THE BIRMINGHAM POSTABOUT THE EDITORJonathan Reeve has been a history book publisher for twenty years and has been responsible for publishing several memoirs by Battle of Britain fighter pilots including SCRAMBLE! by Tom Neil ('Enthralling' THE DAILY MAIL), SPITFIRE PILOT by Roger Hall ('No-one has written more vividly about air combat' THE SUNDAY TIMES) and SPITFIRE ACE by Gordon Olive ('Ever wonder what it was like to fly a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain? No account captures it quite so nerve shreddingly as this new book by a hero who flew 193 sorties' THE DAILY MAIL). He is also the editor of BATTLE OF BRITAIN VOICES ('A valuable contribution' BBC WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE MAGAZINE).
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Add this copy of Tally-Ho! : a Yankee in a Spitfire to cart. $26.96, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Independently published.
