So….. You’re Going to be a Pilot

So….. You’re Going to be a Pilot

Harry ‘Tap’ Tapner

238 Pages

Black & White Photographs

Softback

A4 – 296 x 210mm

Harry Tapner was a teenager at the outbreak of WWII and volunteered to join the RAF in January 1942, the day after his 18th birthday, without first telling his parents! After Selection and Initial Training, the first stage of what he describes as his ‘great adventure’ was Elementary Flying Training at Worcester on the Tiger Moth, then by troopship via Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and Aden to South Africa for more Elementary, then Advanced Flying Training on the Harvard and the gaining of his ‘wings’ and a commission. As Rome was being liberated from the Germans, he travelled north via Rhodesia, Uganda and the Sudan, through Egypt and into Palestine for Operational Training in Army Cooperation duties on the Hurricane and then the Spitfire, which included his introduction to ‘Tac/R’, ‘Arty/R’ and ‘Photo/R’. Harry joined 208 Squadron at Peretola (Florence) in December 1944 in the last stages of the Italian Campaign. At the end of the War, he travelled with the Squadron to Palestine, before returning to the UK to be demobilised in December 1946.

His personal recollections are told in a relaxed and conversational style, and contain considerable detail of the minutiae of day-to-day living whilst deployed. He describes the intricacies of flying operations, such as the pitfalls of landing a Hurricane for the first time, crash-landing a Spitfire out of fuel, the many layers of flying clothing required for winter sorties, being subject to a terrorist attack in Palestine, and Army Co-operation duties including the precision dropping of a personal message from a Brigadier to his wife. He also recalls a myriad of off-duty exploits, such as leave in Capri, Rome, Alexandria and Naples, and climbing Mount Vesuvius a few weeks after its eruption in March 1944. He taught colleagues to drive, and had a close encounter with Ferdinand the Bull. As Station Entertainments Officer, he arranged the Christmas Pantomime, and then took it on tour with ENSA.

As Harry himself writes in the Preface to his book, this is not a tale of bravado in the face of the enemy, nor is it a tale of outstanding heroism or terrible deprivation. It is instead a detailed chronicle of the selection, training and operations of certain RAF aircrew during WWII, particularly the author’s participation in the Empire Air Training Scheme of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Air Forces, and what occurred during WWII and thereafter. This very rounded account of service life during a very difficult time in the Nation’s history should be of immense value to anyone interested in what flying training and operations in the latter stages of WWII were really like.

So….. You’re Going to be a Pilot is available from the Lulu Online Bookstore at the following link: