Shark Squadron Pilot

Shark Squadron Pilot
By Bert Horden Independant Books, 200 pages. $49.50

As our greatest generation pass on, it seems more of them are putting their stories down on paper before they die. This is one such case being a WWII fighter pilot’s recollections, and like the many that have been released in the past 10 years or so, it follows a similar pattern.

Bert was a young English lad who joined the RAF and was posted to 112 Sqn, RAF to fly Kittyhawks in North Africa. The Shark Squadron was so named for the distinctive shark’s mouth painted under their aircraft’s propeller and became well known to the Afrika Korps.

The historians among you will also recognise this unit as one Clive ‘Killer’ Caldwell commanded for a while, but this was before Bert arrived and there is bare mention of other Australians in the unit.

Bert never made ace status, but survived 130 ops before being tour expired and posted off to instructional duties back in the UK. It is mostly a story about service life in the desert and of the constant strain of operations on pilot, ground crew and aircraft.

The book is based on Bert’s flying log book, diary and letters home, but while written in chronological sequence, it dwells on several themes and is contradictory in some places.

That aside, it is a light, easy read and is well illustrated with Bert’s own photographs.

– Air Cdre Mark Lax