Biggles in France

Biggles #9

by W.E. Johns

This collection of stories from early in Biggles' career combines the fear of deadly serious aerial combat with some of the lighter-hearted moments of life with 266 squadron.

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, War, Historical Fiction, Aviation, Short Stories, World War I

223 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1935

About the author

Invariably known as Captain W.E. Johns, William Earl Johns was born in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Eastman Johns, a tailor, and Elizabeth Johns (née Earl), the daughter of a master butcher. He had a younger brother, Russell Ernest Johns, who was born on 24 October 1895.

He went to Hertford Grammar School where he was no great scholar but he did develop into a crack shot with a rifle. This fired his early ambition to be a soldier. He also attended evening classes at the local art school.

In the summer of 1907 he was apprenticed to a county municipal surveyor where he remained for four years and then in 1912 he became a sanitary inspector in Swaffham, Norfolk. Soon after taking up this appointment, his father died of tuberculosis at the age of 47.

On 6 October 1914 he married Maude Penelope Hunt (1882–1961), the daughter of the Reverend John Hunt, the vicar at Little Dunham in Norfolk. The couple had one son, William Earl Carmichael Johns, who was born in March 1916.

With war looming he joined the Territorial Army as a Private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry), a cavalry regiment. In August 1914 his regiment was mobilised and was in training and on home defence duties until September 1915 when they received embarkation orders for duty overseas.

He fought at Gallipoli and in the Suez Canal area and, after moving to the Machine gun Corps, he took part in the spring offensive in Salonika in April 1917. He contracted malaria and whilst in hospital he put in for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and on 26 September 1917, he was given a temporary commission as a Second Lieutenant and posted back to England to learn to fly, which he did at No. 1 School of Aeronautics at Reading, where he was taught by a Captain Ashton.

He was posted to No. 25 Flying Training School at Thetford where he had a charmed existence, once writing off three planes in three days. He moved to Yorkshire and was then posted to France and while on a bombing raid to Mannheim his plane was shot down and he was wounded. Captured by the Germans, he later escaped before being reincarcerated where he remained until the war ended.

Reviews

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of somewhat connected short stories (each spread over roughly two chapters) of Biggles’ adventures when posted at a French airbase Maranique. His quests range from friendly “contests” with other squadrons (particularly the 287th and Captain Wilkinson “Wilks”) over the number of enemy crafts brought down and the distance they entered beyond the lines, to coordinated action when needed, a run-in with a bull, a turkey “hunt” for Christmas, and even suspected spy activity. The stories give us a view into the kind of action that the airmen saw every day (even when not in outright combat), the kind of lives they led, and indeed the dangers they faced, even when out for the most innocuous of tasks. But Biggles manoeuvres through every situation with a combination of wit, quick-thinking, skill, and a fair bit of luck. He gets into his fair share of trouble (with officers on his own side and the “enemy”), sometimes escaping the worst by no more than a hair’s breadth but even amidst the war atmosphere, finds time enough to play some tricks and have a bit of fun as well with pal Algy by his side many times, and Wilks mostly at the receiving end. This was an interesting collection of stories, and while at the start I thought them ok reads, as I read on, I got drawn in more and more and found them rather enjoyable. The edition I had (Red Fox books) had some rather helpful footnotes on the slang used in the stories which made my reading much smoother.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

{4.5 stars}

They just get better and better. A few pages in, I knew I would once again immensely enjoy a Biggles book. I was reading this at night and at the end of the chapter where the French pilot sits down and sobs because he ruined his plane, I couldn't stop laughing. My younger brother gave me a look, sending me into more giggles. So there's one of the main reasons I liked this one even better. There were four specific stories in it that had me laughing out loud (that is rare :))

One time Biggles goes over to German lines to shoot down a turkey for Christmas dinner. Bringing it home alive in his one seat plane...*cough*...interesting to say the least. Another time....a wild ride in a tank. And toward the end a joke played on another office of a nearby squadron to bring him down off his high horse.

There are serious moments in this as well. The time, for instance, when Biggles and others fight the Huns after the death of a fellow pilot. In these books you see a mixture of laughter and the serious nature of their job.

*There were two or three uses of mild swearing.

[Lydia Willcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5 stars

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

The surface of this is the derring do of the adventurous World War I pilot, but underneath this is an acknowledgement that many of the pilots ate breakfast together and then didn't ever see each other again. Captain W. E. Johns is writing about stuff he knows about, he served in World War I as a pilot and knew the stories, probably just vaguely fictionalised the stories and they're here as a snapshot of a time and a place.

These are short stories, some a chapter long, others a few chapters looking at life in wartime Royal Flying Corps, yes it's a male only cast but that reflects front-line wartime situations that it's set in.

It's interesting to read as a kid and interesting to read some of the subtext as an adult.

[Bjorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pre-code Biggles, as it were, is a weird no-man's-land. Not as annoyingly wholesome as later books would make him - impulsive, nervous, with judgment that's occasionally as poor as you'd expect of a teenager at war. But also served to us in bits and pieces that barely qualify as storytelling, more a serious of unconnected anecdotes that only occasionally treat the subject with the weight it must have had.

No, I don't expect to ever again enjoy these books the way I did at 11. But it's good to know they're still out there.

[Pasan Rajadasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revisiting childhood. While this was a new book for me, and not one of the Biggles stories I have read easily more than 50 times, it still brought back relished memories. It won't win any literature awards, but nostalgia is good enough.

[Andy Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cracking read and I really enjoyed each story being told over two chapters.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this book is incredibly easy to read. I think it was written as a series of very short stories, and the structure of the book does come across like that, there is no overriding story to the whole book, and sometimes threads are just cut and never mentioned again. But great fun and easy to read.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of WW1 stories, with most stretching over 2 or more chapters.

[K Saju · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the books which I come back to , world war I story, a different time and a different world indeed.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection of Biggles stories that never cease to enthral and entertain.
If you enjoy light, easy going war time adventures then "Biggles" is for you.

[Alan Wightman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly entertaining, and unexpectedly wry, stories about the adventures of fighter pilot Captain Bigglesworth, his squadron, and neighbouring squadrons, fighting in France in the First World War.

There is danger and death, but this is not gritty social realism. There is no mud-caked trench warfare here. The pilots of all officers, and enjoy comfortable beds, a mess, a batman, tea, meals, a gramophone, a billiards room. Pilots improvise tactics and schedules, watched on by avuncular approving superiors. This reads more like a scout camp than a war.

Except of course that the pilots die, many of them. They cope with this by simply refusing to think about it, but also by adopting a sense of fair-play, a sense that is shared, it would appear, by their German enemies. Once it is clear that an enemy combatant will be forced down, you should not shoot at him again. Particularly not once he is on the ground. Don’t shoot at another aircraft if their guns have jammed (this, I think, is from another Biggles book). The opposing pilots drop messages for each other, sometimes pleasant, sometimes challenging, but always sporting. It seems like quite a good way to carry on a war.

[Bert van der Vaart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book written in 1935 for boys, the Biggles series is about the heroism and the antics of British combat flyers in WWI. Written by a veteran aviator of that war himself, the book does a surprisingly good job of describing the everyday lives of these pilots. While a little idealistic in terms of their motives, perhaps, the book (and there were many others in the series) details the rivalry between different squadrons, the distance and consequent ignorance (benign as well as malignant) of the commanding officers, the efficiency and yet distinctly ungentlemanly behaviour of the "Huns", and the many factors (weather, reliability of equipment, altitude, lack of radio, etc ) involved in fighting across the line of stagnant and muddy trenches across Belgium helps fill in what WWI must have been like. Helpful as a complement to the Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman which I am also currently reading, Biggles is more than an old boys' book but almost a contemporaneous oral history.

[Budge Burgess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back to the Western Front and Biggles flying Camels. A series of short stories, schoolboy stuff, quite entertaining, with the odd observaton about what life was like in the early days of aerial warfare - for a book aimed at schoolboys, death can be handled quite casually ... flyers get shot down in flames and have to make the decision whether to stay with the craft and burn, or jump without a parachute.
Schoolboys? Well, English public schoolboys - the stories evidence the class structure of the age, with the officer corps definitely a cut above the yoiks who maintain the aircraft and do the jobs around the squadron.
And there'sa actually a mention of young woman in this one! Her honour is never in question ... but, then, I don't think sex was actually invented until after the war.
Schoolboy stuff, jolly japes, quite entertaining. Did I mention it was schoolboy stuff?

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1935, 'Biggles in France' places you back in some of the most fertile territory of Biggles aviation adventures, the air war on the Western Front of Europe during WW1. The tales from this period benefit from the authors personal experience of the period, and in the few instances where he departs from the areas of his experiences the tales suffer badly for it. Examples of this occur in two tales - in one of these, an out of control captured German tank(!) causes damage at the airfield, whilst in another tale Biggles jury-rigs an aircraft with extended wingtips in order to fly higher, to over 20,000 feet. Most of the tales stick to the tried and tested winning formula of battling it out with Huns, and playing pranks on other nearby RFC units. Terrific.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I praised the first Biggles book for it's gritty and realistic depiction of WWI - where any pilot at any time could be killed. Nine books on from that, and this collection has gone down a different route - showing Biggles and his commerades constantly risking their lives to play pranks on each other. It's nice to show the camaraderie between these pilots, but their recklessness often stretches the imagination. I think Johns is at this point running out of WWI stories for Biggles, in fact from this point he focuses his books on Biggles' post-war exploits, a turn which I think is only for the best. 3 stars.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collection of ww1 aviation short stories about Captain Bigglesworth. Quick easy read for a child or given that each story is 2 chapters, one could read them for bedtime stories, leaving each night with a new cliffhanger. Amazingly, not a single grammatical or spelling error that seems to get by modern editors. One or two quite amusing stories and the rest were sort of middle-of-the-road. Could be a good entry point for kids to get into aviation fiction.

[Andrew Ives · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, spanning a chapter or two each, of various WW1 escapades featuring Biggles, Algy, Wilks and the usual members of Camel squadron 266, all set in wartime France. Each is a fairly quick read, mostly action-packed with a touch of humour, yet not entirely flippant about the seriousness of war either. All rather well-written, entertaining and moderately educational too. Biggles rarely disappoints and this one doesn't either. 4.25/5

[Donnacha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it brought me back to my childhood. Great stories.

[Joe Halder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Biggles books, an acquired taste most definately.

[Orla Delaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

À great aviation book following Biggles adventures in World War One.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pure hit of nostalgia. Haven't read biggles since my grandad gave me some as a kid. Brought back so many good memories.

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reviewing the series as a whole, rather than the books individually
The Biggles series is great adventure fiction: we get high stakes, aerial action (in most of the books), and a hero who is endlessly loyal, competent, and calm under pressure.

I love the dogfights, recon missions, and wartime scenarios.

Where the series falls short is character depth. Some attitudes and simplifications reflect the period in which the books were written. There are very definitely dated elements, but considering the era the books were written - overall the series performs well. More than a few of the stories defy plausibility, but who doesn't love to curl up with a good adventure book or 10?

“Never say die.”

[David Tendo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A burst of bullets struck Biggles' machine somewhere just behind him, and he jerked the control-stick back into his stomach. A Hun shot past his wing-tip, so close that Biggles flinched.'That's too close!' he muttered. 'Where the dickens are the S. E.'s?'Biggles battles through the First World War, honing his flying skills in terrifying battles against the finest fighters the enemy can supply. But he finds war provides more light-hearted adventures as well, and this collection of stories from early in Biggles' career combines the fun of being part of 266 squadron and the fear of deadly serious aerial combat.

[Daniel Bratell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that all have been published in other Biggles books. I can't remember if it is one of the first books or if it is in Biggles of 266 but if you have read those books then nothing here is new.

Well, a few stories are changed/edited a bit but I don't know if that is because of the edition or because of the books. When republished in the 70s(?) the editor did a lot of change and I read that version.

[Micah Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

More astounding adventures from ww1, some of them quite fantastic! Definitely worth a read if you're getting into Biggles. My favourite thing about ww1 Biggles are his competitions with Wilks, they're so good xD

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very nice, especially because it gives you an idea of how life was like in the war at a sqaudron.

[Thomas Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Great War aviation books I've read in a long while. Right up there with "Sagittarius Rising"

[Cocaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book from my childhood days. One of the comforts I had during my times in hospital. Fantastic!