Fighter Pilot’s Summer by Franks & Richey

FIGHTER PILOTS SUMMER

by

FRANKS & RICHEY

PUBLISHED ; GRUBB STREET

FIRST EDITION 1993

Unknown to almost everyone, Paul Richey started  this sequel to his acclaimed book Fighter Pilot  in 1941, but was unable to continue it beyond  the initial chapters. Now, aviation author and  historian Norman Franks has taken these  chapters which appear here verbatim, and, by  gaining exclusive access to Paul’s papers and  diaries, has completed the task, 50 years after  both the original book was published and the  sequel begun.  Fighter Pilot was republished several times,  being updated in recent years with the help of his  wife Diana, but the story still ended with the fall  of France in 1940, for the book was all about the  Battle of France. Yet Paul Richey, despite being  seriously wounded in that conflict, returned to fly  a tour of operations from RAF Biggin Hill in 1941  as a flight commander in 609 (West Riding)  Squadron, RAuxAF, and gain a bar to the DF C he  won in France.  Fighter Pil0t’s Summer is the story not only of  609 Squadron’s offensive war during that  momentous summer, when the RAF started to  take the war to the enemy over Northern France,  but also in part of Paul’s squadron commander,  Michael Robinson DSO DFC, who also  happened to be his brother-in-law, and of  Paul’s exploits to the end of the war.  Sadly, Michael Robinson was lost over the  English Channel in 1942 but Paul went on to  serve under Sholto Douglas at Fighter Command  HQ, then command his old 609 Squadron flying  Typhoons, before going to India and Burma. Paul  was a born fighter, and his way of doing things  often got him into trouble, but he was always  guided by the heartfelt feeling that he was doing  what was needed to be done to win the war and to  get the best for men who were at the sharp-end  fighting it.  He was still fighting what he believed to be  injustice when he died in 1989 

ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS    

CONDITION V GOOD  ,WITH DUST JACKET 

BINDING TIGHT .CLEAN INTERIOR