Author: NORMAN, PETER.
Title: Tiger Moths & Butterflies. With the Airforce in War and Peace.
Description: 8vo; pp. 136; photograph illustrations throughout text, maps; appendicies, bibliography, biographical Notes & references, stiff illustrated wrapper; a fine copy. (New Zealand), Hazard Press Publishers, (2003). The book is about the life of a schoolboy and his contempories during WWII. In 1942, Peter Norman and his friends were excited at the thought of escaping boyhoood and getting into uniform to serve their country in the war. Desperate to take part in the action, they enlisted in the new Zealand Air Force, where unlike the Army, they would not need to wait until turning twenty-one before being sent overseas. In this beautifully written account, the reader is given and insight into the feelings of trepidation of a first solo flight in a Tiger Moth and the thrill of accomplishment. The book covers the period of training, voyages in US troop ships across the Pacific, the exciting conversion to modern fighter aircraft, the companionship of a squadron and the inevitable loss of friends.

Keywords: New Zealand airforce tiger moths training wwII Royal Flying Corps RNZAF RCAF Norman Peter biography fighter pilots personal narratives aerial operations military history