To Burma and Back: The War Diaries of Colin Dunford Wood, 1939-46

A fascinating eyewitness account of some of the lesser-known episodes in World War Two, written by an Indian Army officer turned RAF pilot. Full of self-deprecating humour, Dunford Wood's war diaries record adventure, boredom, terror, love and more. Accompanied by photographs and maps, his adventures began on the North-West Frontier of British India in early 1939 and continued through operations in Iraq, Burma, China, Holland and Germany. Over this period he piloted over 100 aircraft types, including Audaxes, Lysanders, Hurricanes and Spitfires. He was one of 39 pupil pilots who fought at Habbaniya in May 1941; he was shot down by friendly fire in Burma in 1942; he flew the last Hurricane out in the face of the marauding Japanese, before returning to Burma as part of the Arakan campaign in 1943; and he flew Spitfires in support of the Allied crossing of the Rhine in 1945. Of 60 Indian Army officers who originally volunteered to transfer to the RAF when war broke out, he was one of just two survivors. It's an incredible tale.