In 1939, at the age of 19, Jim Bailey was conscripted into the RAF to train as a fighter pilot. What happened over the next five years to Jim and the men he met, the men who fought, died and survived, is related with candour and quiet modesty in this book. The book describes the youthful heroism of his companions, and he captures the atmosphere of everyday life on the ground in wartime Britain, as well as the air battles. After the war, Jim Bailey returned to South Africa where he had spent much of his childhood and became a leading liberal activist and founder of Drum magazine.