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Description:
The
second part of Roald Dahl's remarkable life story. With
the outbreak of World War II, Dahl decides to sign up
with the Royal Air Force and learn to fly. He recounts
the exhilaration of flying, the camaraderie of his fellow
pilots and the exotic beauty of his African experience.
Young Roald Dahl leaves England in 1938 for a job with
Shell Oil in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and travelling around
East Africa, he comes to love the beautiful and perilous
country. Then, with the outbreak of World War II, he decides
to sign up with the Royal Air Force and learn to fly.
After six months of training, Dahl is ready to join 80
Squadron but is given the wrong directions and crash-lands
in the western desert of Libya. He recuperates for half
a year in Egypt and takes to the air again, meeting up
at last with his squadron in Greece. Though he has no
combat training, and minimal flight experience, he and
14 other pilots make up the entire RAF in that theatre
of war. On 20th April 1941, this band must take on the
German Luftwaffe in the battle of Athens. Dahl recounts
the exhilaration of flying, the camaraderie of his fellow
pilots and the exotic beauty of his African experience.
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