The Big Show: The Classic Account of WWII Aerial Combat
‘THE BIG SHOW is as close as you’ll ever get to fighting for your life from the cockpit of a Spitfire or Typhoon. Perhaps the most viscerally exciting book ever written by a fighter pilot.’ Rowland White Pierre Clostermann DFC was one of the oustanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who
‘THE BIG SHOW is as close as you’ll ever get to fighting for your life from the cockpit of a Spitfire or Typhoon. Perhaps the most viscerally exciting book ever written by a fighter pilot.’ Rowland White
Pierre Clostermann DFC was one of the oustanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who flew with the RAF, he survived over 420 operational sorties, shooting down scores of enemy aircraft while friends and comrades lost their lives in the deadly skies above Europe.
THE BIG SHOW, his extraordinary account of the war, has been described as the greatest pilot’s memoir of WWII.
‘A truly remarkable book … the most gripping descriptions of aerial combat I have ever read’ New York Times
‘A thrilling read … ranks among the finest accounts of war’ Guardian
‘A magnificent story’ Daily Telegraph
‘A classic … gripping, ripping, full of action’ Economist
‘Vividly captures the spirit of air combat’ The Times
‘The relentlessness of the flying is extraordinary and the casual loss of life chilling. It really is one of the very best war memoirs ever written: exhilarating, exciting, deeply moving and a book that lingers in the mind long after the last page has been turned.’ James Holland
Bestsellers 2021
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Interesting, exciting, scary This is a very well written and interesting account of flying during the second WW – with a lot of detail and information about flying, training, fighting and an awful lot of dying. You almost become numb to the numbers of people being killed flying difficult missions – and it’s amazing that the author survived (despite many close calls).There’s quite a lot of detail about the aircraft being flown and fought against – the level of which (for me at least) is pretty much spot on…
Lack of illustations Undoubtedly one of the best books about the air war that I have ever read. I had a paperback copy which I bought decades ago and as they do, it eventually fell apart and was disposed of. I remember that copy being quite well illustrated and I was disappointed to find that the kindle version had none. This in itself isn’t an issue provided that you know beforehand what you are buying, but I found no indication that you were getting a copy with the illustrations stripped out.The only…
A real surprise … great read By surprise, I mean the approach taken and I had missed the writer was a Free French Pilot within the RAF. Thoroughly enjoyed, and I do not want to use too many cliches, but ‘in the cockpit’ ‘felt the fear, the adrenaline and the excitement’, would not be unfair to say.This really is a different view, and I will no doubt read this one again.