The death of a hero
In 1984, my first and only book was published. It was a biography of my wife’s father, the World War II Czech night intruder ace Karel Kuttelwascher and it was called “Night Hawk”. While doing picture research for the book at the Imperial War Museum, I came across a photograph of an aircraft called “The Darlington Spitfire”. In view of my family name, i was intrigued by the picture, bought a copy, and had it framed for my study.
The photograph showed a Canadian pilot in the cockpit of the aircraft. Later I researched the history of “The Darlington Spitfire” and found that many different pilots had flown it. One of the British pilots was Roy Flight who was her regular pilot at 118 Squadron over a period of two months. She carried him into battle on a total of 26 operations, never failing to bring him back unharmed. For details of these flights, check out the end of Part 5 and all of Parts 6 & 7 in my essay.
I have now learned that this week Roy Flight died in his adopted country of New Zealand. He was 90 and suffered from pancreatic cancer. I salute him and send condolences to his family ands friends.