Six Crashes Later: The Story Of A Fighter Pilot (2005) By Derek Leyland Stevenson DFC
 
As might be expected from a kinsman of Robert Louis Stevenson, Steve Stevenson's life was far from dull.
 
A schoolboy's passion to become a fighter pilot led him to enlist in 1942 and spend the next three years flying Hurricanes and Typhoons.
 
Against all the odds, he lived through an eventful and zestful war, including the six crashes in England, Majorca, Normandy and Germany - of the title. Operating over the Med with No 253 Hyderabad State Fighter Hurricane Squadron, he crashed at night in an olive grove on Majorca, badly injuring his back. His attempts to escape back to the war zone make an enthralling adventure story.
 
Eventually, General Franco, being short of petrol at that time, he was exchanged it for a certain amount of low-grade fuel. Back in action for D-Day, he had to crash land over the Normandy beachhead, unfortunately hitting a wall hidden in a cornfield, with the result that he spent several months in hospital.
 
At the end of the war, he was awarded the DFC. He did not receive the decoration, so after two years, he politely asked about it and was told to report to the Air Ministry. In a basement room, he filled in a form and was then invited to take his pick from a drawer full of them.
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
238 pages
In Good Condition