A very personal story of live and death of wing commander Benjamin, one of the heroes of the air in World War 2. Many books were written about the heroic pilots of the RAF in WW2 containing exciting stories about their fighting adventures. This book is no exception. Starting with his career flying Fairy Battles and after that upgrading to the Avro Lancaster the stories were told and written down by his daughter Jeannie.
Special is the very intimate accent that is provided by the personal letters that are published in the book from his wive Betty to him and his own letters to his wive during his wartime period. It gives the book an authentic atmosphere and provides the reader with the dramatic reality of a married wartime pilot who put his life at stake every day and night operation over enemy territory.
His short lived career is impressive. Crashed several times, but survived which resulted in a fast career from sergeant pilot to wing commander in a couple of years. The ultimate reward was his promotion as a master bomber flying the famous Mosquito. A master bomber was responsible for the accurate bombing by the main force on targets that supported the German war machine. During one of those operations he was hit by AA fire and was killed in the crash of his plane together with his navigator.
Also the aftermath many years after the war described by Jeannie Benjamin of her meeting with a RAF pilot that overheard the last words of her father when he was fatally hit and went down with his plane, is a very dramatic, personal but also an inspiring part of the book which gave me goosebumps. The original black an white photos made during his flying career upgrade the book to a representative and valuable war time document.
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