Customer Reviews
Outstanding! - By: D. N. Gibson, 26 Sep 2008 
I discovered an earlier version of this book & absolutely loved it. This full version was even more interesting since it filledin a few gaps leftin the earlier version. I have not read a better book about life as a fighter pilot. Indeed it stands as one of the very best books I have ever read. He has a wonderful style of writing. You really do feel what it was like to be there. Hugely recommended.
Definitely one of the best pilot memoirs - By: D. Williams, 31 May 2007 This book, along with Geoff Wellum's First Light & Jim Goodson's Tumultin the Clouds really stands head & shoulders above the rest of the bunch & will have you hooked from start to finish.
Just one thing I would really like to know more about is the claim that Rommel was killedin the attack on his staff carin Normandyin July 44 by a pair of Spitfires - one Canadian & one Kiwi pilot, & not forced to commit suicide later, after being implicatedin the plot to asassinate Hitler.
Can anyone shed any more light on this?
The greatest aviation book ever written - By: Fredrik Pettersson, 28 Aug 2006 I have read a number of fighter pilot biographies & countless outer aviation related literature & this one is still my favourite. Maybe because it was one of the first I read but probably more because it is such a great book, very few others really are as personal & brutally honest as this one. If one is only going to read one WW2 biography it should be this one. An extra bonus is of course that Clostermann flies both the Spitfire & the brutal Hawker Tempest, it can not get any better than that, can it?
My return to childhood - By: Benediktv, 27 Sep 2005 If there was only one WW2 book you should read, here it goes.
This book is the first from many WW2 memoirs I've read & it's undoubtedly the best one. When reading this, YOU ARE THERE, smelling the gunpowder, hearing bullets & explosions & wishing only to pass through the hell alive. You will read this book during one long evening & then you'll return to it, once & again. I remember that I cried when reading the last pages, I cried of relief & sadness, I cried along with the young man, who had come through the most painful chapter of his life. Per Ardua Ad Astra - Through Struggle To The Stars, they say. And you'll find that definitely true.
Excellent read - By: , 23 Jul 2005 Like the other critics I love this book.
But how many aircraft did he shoot down & how many was he officially credited with? In one of the originals 23 & now 33.
Shores has Closterman with c 19.
This latest version is the best. A larger picture of Closterman is created, more irreverant to authority, the issue of losing track of Mouchotte & the criticsm that ensued creates an inpiring picture of a very brave, idiosyncratic fighter pilot. A great book
