Johnnie Johnson's 1942 Diary: The War Diary of the Spitfire Ace of Aces

Air Vice-Marshal Johnnie' Johnson was a character literally from the pages of Boys' Own: an individual who became the RAF's top-scoring fighter pilot and wing leader par excellence of the Second World War.A one-time household name synonymous with the superlative Spitfire, Johnnie's aerial combat successes inspired schoolboys for generations. As a lowly Pilot Officer', Johnnie Johnson learned his fighter pilot's craft as a prot g of the legless Tangmere Wing Leader, Douglas Bader.After Bader was brought down over France and captured on 9 August 1941, Johnnie remained a member of 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron, in which he became a flight commander and was awarded the DFC a month after Bader's devastating loss. By the beginning of 1942, when Johnnie's diary begins, Fighter Command was pursuing an offensive policy during daylight hours, reaching out' and taking the war to the Germans in France.It was also a period in which the Focke-Wulf Fw outclassed the Spitfire Mk.V.In Johnnie's words,