Red Flight Two

by Milton Dank

A brave young officer of the Royal Flying Corp witnesses the devastating effects of World War I while serving with a group flying the newly developed Sopwith Camels.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Jaidin Downs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it is about a young man named Edward being a pilot in World War 1, which I love war books. My favorite character is Edward because he is super smart, he knows a lot about planes, and he is very brave. One of my favorite parts of the book(I don't think it's the climax) is that when Edward had an unsuccessful mission trying to shoot down a zeppelin(has two gondolas on the bottom and looks like a big silver cigar). He goes to the top engineer at the airfield and asks if he could have his B.E.-12(a plane) lightened. The way he lightens his B.E.-12 is that he takes off the lewis machine gun on top, gets a smaller fuel tank, and puts explosive rounds into his vickers machine gun. What made me kind of surprised is that ever body on the airfield thought he was partly crazy for doing this even though I think that he was right with changing a lot of stuff because the B.E.-12 could only climb to 12,000 feet. Once he gets his plane finally, snow starts to fall on the airfield and they couldn't fly or do really anything. If I was stuck at an airfield and I couldn't fly I probably would be very board, but I would probably play games or cards with one of my friends. So, one day they finally can go fly their planes because they shoveled all the snow off the runways, but Edward has to work the midnight shift to watch out for zeppelin's. Then he gets his shift to go fly and right around about 20 minutes left of fuel, then he would have to go back to the runway, he spots a zeppelin in the East. So, he goes and fights the zeppelin by himself. He surprises the germans and he shoots his vickers gun at the zeppelin. Once the bullets penetrated nothing happened and he was almost going to run out of fuel. I would be very discouraged about basically doing nothing to this giant zeppelin. But then, the zeppelin starts to catch fire, then the hole zeppelin is engulfed in flames. Then Edward was really happy because they finally got a zeppelin because they hadn't got one in the past couple of months. While Edward watches the zeppelin going down he almost gets hit my the zeppelin because it was closer than it seemed to be. After that Edward goes to the airfield a hero. The next day he has a press conference to talk about him shooting down the zeppelin. Then Edward gets a question if the military is sending young flyers out into combat with only a couple of hours of solo flight. Then the general masterman(that's his name) takes away Edward because he is scared of him saying anymore about the military. I would be very mad because if I was telling the truth and being taken away(kind of like house duty) for saying it. Alright, I will not say anymore.

[Emma Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book quiet extraordinary and an eye opener. It's set from 1916-1918 which is the last half of World War I. Edward Burton is an eighteen-year-old in the beginning of the book, but is already an experienced fighter. He trains new pilots after being in the hospital for having a mental breakdown after watching his friend leap to his death out of his plane. Edward is then sent back to the front to his old squadron, the Number Twenty-Four Squadron. Over the next two years, Edward becomes a veteran and even the leader or Commanding Officer of the Number Twenty-Four squadron. Throughout his life as a fighter pilot, Edward has seen many deaths of those he cared about and won himself many victories. Edward even came across Manfred Von Richthofen (a.k.a The Red Baron) a few times. The ending made me feel happy but also sad. It's just a nutshell, actually a small nutshell of the book, but it was very enjoyable. I also enjoyed the narration and how it described what Edward would do with his plane like pulling back on the control stick and using the rudder or diving down. I can relate to Edward by being interested in planes. I'm not too sure if I'd want to be a fighter pilot in World War I though. Some of the new pilots lasted about a week or less. Being able to read about what it was like and what the pilots saw when they fought was very intriguing. Imagine flying around in a plane with an open cockpit and fighting against some of the best pilots on the opposing side, wow!

[Rory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book Red Flight Two takes place in England during World War 2. Red Flight Two is a historical fiction. The main character is Edward Burton, and lieutenant pilot in WW2. Edward is conflicted with finding a way to end the war and he watches people die everyday and he desperately is trying to end to war. What this book made me think about is how war is a terrible thing in life. People risk their lives for their countries. And most of them are fighting and they don't even know why they are. I would definitely recommend this book to another student. It has a good amount of action if they are the the type of reader that likes action and dilemmas. People that like the previous book of the series, Khaki Wings, then they will definitely live this book.