Nicky Barr, an Australian Air Ace: A Story of Courage and Adventure

Front Cover
Allen & Unwin, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 312 pages
At 23, Nicky Barr was chosen to represent Australia in the national rugby world tour. The day after the squad arrived in England, war was declared and the tour cancelled. Nicky immediately signed up to become a fighter pilot in the RAAF and while fighting Romel's famed Afrika Corp in North Africa, quickly became a squadron leader.
 

Contents

The Morning Before
1
The Early Years
5
Khartoum
20
Landing Ground 122
26
First Victory
41
Enter the Kittyhawks
52
Senussi Adventure
62
Cairo
74
Bergamo
153
Lake Como
162
The Metamorphosis
173
Bergamo Revisited
181
Germany Bound
191
Pontremoli
198
Abruzzi
209
Goriano Valli
216

Gambut
80
Operation Venezia
90
Knightsbridge
97
Battle of the Cauldron
102
Bir Hacheim
110
Sidi Rezegh
124
Mersa Matruh
134
Tobruk
144
The Alpine Route
231
Cutello
236
Normandy
245
Australia
258
The Years After
269
Australian Fighter Aces of World War Two
279
Further Reading
281
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page vii - I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew — And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Page 178 - For Yesterday is but a Dream, And Tomorrow is only a Vision; But Today well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Page 176 - For oft when on my couch I lie, In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye, Which is the bliss of solitude ; And then my heart with pleasure fills And dances with the daffodils !" He calls this a sort of " ocular spectrum," — a most bilious " ocular spectrum
Page 117 - ... over the sky, swirling from sea level to the cloud layer in wild dogfights. The formations were shredded. I snapped into a tight loop and rolled out on the tail of a Hellcat, squeezing out a burst as soon as the plane came into the range finder. He rolled away and my bullets met only empty air. I went into a left vertical spiral, and kept closing the distance, trying for a clear shot at the plane's belly. The Grumman tried to match the turn with me; for just that moment I needed, his underside...
Page 270 - Island, where he remained until the end of the war. After the war he began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1867.
Page 117 - ... was no hesitation on the part of the American pilots; the Grummans screamed in to attack. Then the planes were all over the sky, swirling from sea level to the cloud layer in wild dogfights. The formations were shredded. I snapped into a tight loop and rolled out on the tail of a Hellcat, squeezing out a burst as soon as the plane came into the range finder. He rolled away and my bullets met only empty air. I went into a left vertical spiral and kept closing the distance, trying for a clear shot...
Page vii - Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things you Have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung, High in the sunlit silence...
Page 125 - It was like an immense silver and pink quilt, which hung overhead like a canopy, through which the early stars twinkled. It slowly changed to a vivid scarlet, the soft pastel shades being replaced by bold reds and fiery pools of crimson. Nicky was compelled to be creative. He rested against a handy ridge and etched a poem in his logbook. He titled it 'Meanderings'.
Page 90 - The morning stillness was broken by the first splutter of an engine then, one by one, a dozen Kittyhawks, sounding like the powerful tattoo of thousands of war drums, throbbed into life as the ground crew inspected and warmed the motors.

About the author (2005)

Peter Dornan is a Brisbane physiotherapist and is author of The Silent Men.