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THE DONNINGTON LEGEND by David Beaty

THE DONNINGTON LEGEND

By

Pub Date: Sept. 21st, 1949
Publisher: Morrow

A well contrived mosaic of character and characters. An RAF base on a lonely island off the Faroes is divided in its opinion towards Donnington, and officers, their wives, pilots and aircraftsmen give their picture of the man, and more than incidentally, themselves. From the Group Captain, the doctor, the accountant, to members of Donnington's own crew, to the women who loved him, to those who wished him well and those who betrayed him, come the stories of his extravagant luck, his uncanny ability to handle the jinx ship, J-Jig, his merited promotions -- and all the conjectures concerning what makes the man tick. There is the picture too of the U-boat war and the Coastal Command, of the lack of replacements and equipment, of the conflict of commands -- in all of which Donnington figured, with or without, approval. And when orders come for attack on a convoy, it is J-Jig that lets him down and his own trusted crew that refuses to stay with him on his suicidal mission. The fascination of the self-revelations and the interlocking portraits of the central character provides intense rather than thin, popular reading.