The Ace of Airbase!

One of my more socially acceptable habbit has been reading. I happen to read a lot and but please I am not that art and philosophy kind of a reader. I use those books only as sleeping pills! One of the things I love to lay my hands on is live account of war of the worlds by the one's who were in it. Again I dont like Churchil and Mein Kampf type stuff because thats full off propoganda and self forwarding effort. I like the soldier's tale!

To cut the chase last week I happened to be reading Ba Ba Black Sheep by Major Greg Boyington. This guy is a "Medal of Honour" war hero Pilot from WWII, who assembled a bunch of loosers to create Black Sheep Squadron and this squadron went on to kick the Japanese and some jealous American Colonels asses in WWII. Boyington never forwards his own character as being a true hero. He accepts his alcohol problem and doesn't mind being open about it. He never dons the mantle of a hero and doesn't want to. He was on your face, care a damn kinda person. And you like him for being straight and at times selfish. The book is really a good look into how the war was in the air and emotions people felt when the pilot next to you, which you can say at most times was feeling little dejected.

Anyway, along with the things came the Flying Aces. These are pilots who have brought down five or more enemy planes. The most famous of the Flying Aces would have to be Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron" who brought down 80 Entente planes in WWI, another of the Germans in WWII has 352 kills to his name (all Russians), which is an all time record. Boyington was able to bring down 26 Enemy planes (then a record for Allied Forces) before he was shot down and captured by Japanese.

I got interested in this Aces business and to the mother of all surprises I found Indra Lal "Laddie" Roy. India has a flying ace to its name. Roy is credited with 10 kills in WWI, though he finally died in action. Roy gathered all his 10 kills in just 13 days in which he saw war. Follow the link to read more. Hats off to Indra Lal Roy.