Tom Neil
Thomas Neil joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) on 17th October 1938 and began his flying training at 17 E&RFTS, Barton, Manchester.
Called up on 2nd September 1939, Neil went to 4 ITW; Bexhill in early November.
On 1st December he was posted to 8 FFS, Montrose and on completion of the course, he was commissioned and joined 249 Squadron on 15th May 1940 at its reformation at Church Fenton.
Flying from North Weald on 7th September, Neil claimed a Bf 109 fighter destroyed, on the 11th a He 111 bomber, on the 15th two Bf 109s and a Do 17 bomber destroyed and another Do 17 shared, on the 18th a He 111 damaged and on the 27th a Bf 110 and a Ju 88 bomber destroyed, a Bf 110 fighter probably destroyed and a Ju 88 shared.
On 6th Octobe
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Stiles enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, became an aviation cadet, and upon completion of training, received his officer's commision as a 2nd Lieutenant in November 1943.
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After earning his pilot license, Gann spent his much of his free time aloft, flying for pleasure. The continuing Great Depression soon cost him his job and he was unable to find another position in the movie business. In search of work, he decided to move his family to California. Gann was able to find odd jobs at Burbank Airport, and also began to write short stories. A friend managed to get him a part-time job as a co-pilot with a local airline company and it was there that he flew his first trips as a professional aviator. In the late 1930s many airlines were hiring as many pilots as they could find; after hearing of these opportunities, Gann and his f -
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Donald L. Miller
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Robert Leckie
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He is best known for his "Eagle" series. This is Roman empire military fiction, starting with the second invasion of Britain, and continuing with subsequent adventures in every corner of the empire. The stories are told through the eyes of two centurions, Macro and Cato. To date there are eighteen books in the series.
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
James Holland was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and studied history at Durham University. He has worked for several London publishing houses and has also written for a number of national newspapers and magazines. Married with a son, he lives near Salisbury. -
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GEOFFREY WELLUM, a veteran of the Battle of Britain, was the youngest fighter pilot (at 18) in the Royal Air Force (RAF) to have fought in that battle.
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Fiennes has written books about his army service and his expeditions as well as a book defending Robert Falcon Scott from modern revisionists. In May 2009, aged 65, he climbed to the summit of Mount Everest. According to the Guinness Book of World Records he is the world's greatest living adventurer. -
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Paul Richey
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Richey joined the RAF in 1937 and was posted to 1 Squadron, flying Furies. After completion of his training, Richey was posted, in March 1939, to No.1 Squadron based at Tangmere, flying Hawker Hurricane fighters.
On Sept 8th, shortly after war was declared Richey's squadron were ordered to Vassincourt in France where they flew counter-air patrols in the Metz area.
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He was given the nickname 'Widge' – short for 'Wizard Midget', apparently due to his tendency to call things 'Wizard' (like people today describe things as 'Wicked'), and his short stature (he was 5 feet 6 inches / 1.65m). He mentions his RAF nickname in his part-fiction, part-autobiographical book but claimed not to know how -
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Sara Cox
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Merlin Sheldrake
Merlin is the author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures. Merlin received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a research associate of the Vrije University, Amsterdam, and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation and the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.
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