HEAVEN HIGH, OCEAN DEEP: Naval Fighter Wing at War

1-220080

Describes the exceptional group of young men, from Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Holland and South Africa, who joined the Fleet Air Arm as pilots in WWII. With their American-built Hellcats they were in the thick of the action from April 1944 to August 1945, providing a hard, professional core to this fighting fleet that few would equal. Follows the young pilots lives from selection, through training to operations. The 5th Wing went to sea in 1944 and were in continuous action, in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from then until the last days of the war. They participated in strikes on Sumatra with the aim of destroying its highly important oil refineries, then they joined in the battles for Leyte and Okinawa, before moving with the British Fleet to begin the invasion Japan itself.