Fly For Your Life: The Story Of Wing Commander Bob Stanford Tuck Dso, Dfc & Two Bars

by Larry Forrester

WINSTON CHURCHILL’S famous tribute, “Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few,” was said of men like Wing Commander. Stanford Tuck and his comrades, the “so few” who saved England in 1940 from the onslaught of Hitler’s invasion.An outstanding leader in the Royal Air Force... ace of aces in the Battle of Britain... hero of a daring escape from an “escape-proof” German prison, Stanford Tuck was one of England’s best-loved and best-known fighter pilots. From the hard-fought air battles over France to the epic confrontations in the skies of England, this magnificent biography paints a vibrant and colorful portrait of Tuck and his most exciting moments—the breathtaking dogfights ... his stunning victories over the Luftwaffe...his innovative and imaginative air tactics.Illustrated with handsome drawings, Fly for Your Life not only tells the story of a legendary pilot, it re-creates in graphic detail experiences common to all RAF airmen who flew and fought. Roaring aloft to defend their homeland in Hurricanes and Spitfires, these were the same men who would later carry the air war to Germany itself. Here is an utterly fascinating portrayal of great warriors doing their jobs with immeasurable courage...men who convinced themselves that they could return from impossible missions.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Aviation, World War II, Military Fiction, War

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Neill Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the original copy of the book owned by Zbyshek Kustrzynski, the Polish pilot who escaped from prison camp with Tuck. I knew Mr. K. as we called him in the 60s in Montreal West as he was the father of one of my best friends, Marek. The Kustrzynskis were a fashionable, middle class couple who held many parties and who were themselves celebrated as larger than life heroes of the second world war.
Zbyshek was a tall, muscular man with thick arms on his glasses that contained hearing aids for both ears as his hearing was severely damaged in the crash landing of his Spitfire in France in 1941 after a rubarb mission found his engine failing from small arms fire forcing the landing. He had trained in Britain after escaping from the German invasion of Poland by crash landing his Polish air force biplane in Bulgaria which split his face open and which he had sewn up by a panic stricken doctor he held at gun point as the Germans were advancing on the town they were in. That scar went from his forehead down across his nose to the corner of his mouth on the other side of his face. He got to Britain and was trained on Hurricanes during July and August 1940 just in time for the September peak of the Battle of Britain. His official RAF log book shows 15 certified "victories" of various Luftwaffe aircraft in the three weeks of September that he flew in the Battle. This made him the second highest scoring Polish ace in the Battle of Britain. At the end of September his entire squadron was rotated up to Scotland for recovery from battle exhaustion.
When he ended up in Stalag Luft III with Tuck, the book describes how they escaped and walked across Poland to the Russian lines. Zbyshek's copy of the book came with a handwritten letter from Bob Tuck himself waxing nostalgic and apologizing for the "poetic licence" taken by Forrester who had embellished much of the story and got some of the facts wrong about their ordeal. I remember Zbyshek pointing out some of the errors and laughing uproariously while telling us spellbound school boys what "really" happened. He also mentioned that his kill count of 15 were only the ones that the ministry had "certified". There many other kills that were apparently not certifiable in the chaotic madness of massive dogfights. Zbyshek's greatest personal moment of horror during the war came when he had to kill a young German soldier who stumbled upon their hiding place in a barn with his bare hands to prevent him giving the alarm to the main party of Wehrmacht searching buildings in the area.
He showed us photos of himself with other POWs. They all looked gaunt, grim, thin and very depressed. There was nothing glorious about that concentration camp unlike what the movie The Great Escape portrays.
At his funeral, after he passed away peacefully at the age of 85, five of his aged Polish fighter pilot brothers all dressed in blue blazers and gray pants with their rows of medals shining brightly stood together as one and saluted him parade style bidding farewell to one of the greatest of them all. Tuck had made a very wise choice of escape partner 60 years earlier.
So I heartily recommend you read this book but understand that many many times of fear, pain, rage, depression, helplessness, despair and grieving are not conveyed very well. The book was written to hail heroes in the euphoric times after the war when survivors needed to give voice to their experiences and where journalists and publicists needed to glamorize the stories in order to sell to a voracious public wanting to know the "inside stories" of the people in the middle of the action.
We must thank them all for what they risked and what they gave, especially their friends who did not survive.

[Fiid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read and different perspective from The Big Show and First Light. Certainly worth reading if you're interested in aerial warfare in WWII. Still amazes me the conditions these people coped with and the risks that they took.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those WWII bios in a style that seemed to be popular during the 1950's. The subject is always the most courageous soldier, sailor, flyer, spy, whatever, that has ever been seen and could possible be one of the top ten reasons why the Allies won the war. The hyperbole here is pretty thick and it can get a bit irritating. While I'm sure that Mr. Tuck was a courageous flyer I doubt that he personally won The Battle of Britain.

[A3TH4N · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandfather gave me his old copy of this books, it is a old fabric covered, old fashioned binding version, probably a first or second edition publication.

Honestly, out of all the books about historical events (including WW2).

THIS IS HONESTLY MY FAVOURITE

And I'm not just saying that because of sentiment, I honestly really love this book, and I am looking for someone good at old book binding to help fix it because I want it to last much much longer.

[Andrew Greenlaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Adults this pilot's biography is a brilliantly written story of an exceptional pilot who had a very eventful life outside of flying.

For youngsters: if you're looking for a boyhood (or girlhood) hero, Robert Stanford Tuck is a great choice.

I wish i knew more pilots like this. And its my favourite nonfiction book.

[Adrian Cockle · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is necessarily biased as I'm (distantly) related to Tuck, but this is a real like story of derring-do throughout WW2 from the perspective of a fighter ace. The highs, the lows, the tedium of waiting for the next sortie and the edge-of-the-seat tension in dogfights.

[William Shep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent biography of a British World War II fighter ace. One of the odd things I remember about this book is the war Tuck waged as a child against cats with a slingshot.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. Larry and Bob were friends, so the details in the story are quite captivating. I had the great pleasure of knowing Larry and meeting Bob (as well as Adolf Galland.)

[Jeff Land · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book about a British Spitfire /Hurricane pilot with many descriptive adventures. Hard to put down. The book was written in the 1950's so some memories may not be accurate. For instance, there is a episode were he took a trip to the USA and upon arriving was greeted and then set off for the Pentagon. His visit was around November /December 1941 but the Pentagon wasn't completed until January 1943. Later in the chapter he was test flying a P-51 with the Packard Merlin engine. This engine didn't replace the Allison engine until Fall of 1942. I definitely recommend it though.

[Nate Smth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! I first read this book around 10 years old and quickly found myself searching the library shelves for more books about WWII aviation. I have since reread this book about a dozen times.

[Jonathan Beekman · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great story about the RAF during ww2. the amount of skill and daring it took to be a fighter pilot was truly remarkable. it made me truly appreciate what it was like for the pilots of that time. "never in the annals of history have so many owed so much to so few" Church Hill

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favourite book. The greatest generation produced some people of exceptional character who lived through adventures that most of us can only dream of.