Synopsis
“Life and death in a fighter squadron of the R.A.F.” Robert Gale Woolbert, Foreign Affairs
At the outbreak of the Second World War Ian Gleed was twenty-three years old.
Yet despite his youth he was already one of the R.A.F.’s most experienced fliers and was immediately given the position of flight commander in 266 Squadron.
Yet, the life of an R.A.F. pilot in the initial months of the war, with experience or not, was no easy feat.
Just four months after war had broken out his Spitfire broke up while flying meaning that he was hurtling towards the earth from 18000ft without a plane. Fortunately, he still had his parachute, but it was a difficult start to his wartime career.
After recovering from his injuries he was transferred to 87 Squadron, based in France, and there shot down two Me-110, one definite Bf 109, another probably Bf 109, two Do 17 bombers, and a shared He 111 bomber. This record set in two days made him the fastest R.A.F. pilot to have become an ace.
Gleed’s book Arise to Conquer records his fascinating life through the course of World War Two as fights through the course of the Battle of Britain.
“a candid, simply spoken record of a job done and likeable in the telling.” Kirkus Review
Wing Commander Ian Gleed DSO, DFC, was a R.A.F. fighter pilot ace who shot down thirteen enemy planes through the course of his service in World War Two. He served in both the Battle of France and Battle of Britain. Tragically he lost his life at the age of twenty-six in Tunisia in 1943. His book Arise to Conquer was first published in 1942.
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