MALTA SPITFIRE

The story of an individual fighter pilot -- a Canadian who could not be stopped from following his belief in himself. Air minded from earliest memories, Beurling worked for his flying hours, his pilot's license, was turned back when he tried to fight for the Chinese, his parents refused their consent when he wanted to fight for the Finns, he was turned down by the Royal Canadian Air Force for education lapses, and, reaching England via freighter convoy, the R.A.F. had to refuse him because he had no birth certificate with him. Back to Canada on the freighter for the necessary document, and back to England -- at last to be accepted. Then his individualism made the compulsory training difficult, landed him in schoolboyish scrapes, but once the time came, after unhappy assignments over Europe with the bombers, to give his single-track mind a fair chance, he proved his worth over Malta. You'll learn a lot about ITW, EFTS, OTU, Maggies, Hurries, Spitters, Pilot Error (Beurling's bane), Malta Dog -- and all the excitement of keeping your tail clean, deflection shooting and the dogged efficiency of aviators, hold open for future Allied operations. Here too is personal knowledge of the , not only in relation to the air arm, but as it affected the good haters, the civilians. A worthy, informal collaboration, fine in its field.