Sea Flight: A Fleet Air Arm Pilot's Story

Hugh Popham joined the Fleet Air Arm in the summer of 1940 and was soon in training as a pilot at HMS Vincent and then Yeovilton. His wartime career as a naval pilot took him to the far corners of the world, notably to the Indian Ocean where he had to contend against the Japanese Navy. Popham's story is one of a naval fighter pilot having to do his best with hopelessly inadequate planes -- first, the Sea Hurricanes, and then the Supermarine Seafires, which proved to be far too fragile for the rigors of carrier operations. But it is this story, incorporating the kind of detail that is missing from many wartime memoirs, that makes this book so fascinating. His war years aboard HMS Indomitable, HMS Illustrious, HMS Campania and HMS Striker are described with a modest charm that is so typical of a generation that adapted to their wartime roles with humor, energy and, in the end, great bravery.