Author: Lucas, Laddie CBE, DSO and bar, DFC,
Title: FIVE UP - A Chronicle of Five Lives.
Description: Crecy, Manchester, 1999, 3rd edn., 1st in imprint, trade paperback, 300pp, 8pp half tone photo ills., half tone photo pictorial montage upper wrapper, two of the lives referred to were pre WW2 when the author was a successful Fleet Street journalist and an international golfer and after WW2 when he became a politician as a Conservative MP and had a further career in business. The fifth life was his wartime experiences in the Royal Air Force , becoming a famous fighter ace, and at the age of just twenty-six leading the top-scoring 249 Squadron during the Battle of Malta, helping to stem the tide of axis successes on this beleaguered island and featuring accounts of two pilots with the photo-reconnaisance squadron (Adian |Warburton and Harry Coldbeck) and the legendary fighter pilot with 249 Suadron the American George Buerling. After Malta he returned to UK to to a staff post efore command of 616 sSquadron based at Ibsley in Hampshire. In July 1943 he was due to take over a wing in North Africa when at the last minute he was posted to command the Coltishall wing compriising 64 and 611 squadrons, on the loss of their wing commander. Later he commanded 138 Spitfire wing,and dropped a rank so that he could undergo a conversion course on Mosquitoes to lead 613 Mosquito squadron under Basil Embry operating from Cambrai in support of the Allied armies advancing through Europelightly rubbed at tips, very good plus,

Keywords: war ww2 raf journalist politician


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