Biggles and the Rescue Flight (Biggles)

by W E Johns

[wyvernfriend]

A Biggles book where you can see how he's going to get drawn into Major Raymond's end of things. This story is about a schoolboy who pretends to be in the RAF to rescue his brother. His mentor in 266 squadron is Biggles, and Algy also features.

The interesting part for me as an adult is the descriptions of what it was like.

"...Looking down he saw an expanse of brown earth, perhaps a mile in width, gradually merging into dull green on either side. Through the brown expanse that coiled like a mighty serpent across the landscape from west to east ran tiny zigzag lines, hundreds of them, making a cobweb-like pattern. His breath suddenly came faster as he realized that he was looking at the actual lines where two mighty armies were entrenched, grappling in a stupendous life and death struggle. From time to time tiny white puffs appeared, and drifted sluggishly across the brown expanse. They looked harmless enough, but he knew that they must be the smoke of bursting shells."

Any story where one of the heroes falls asleep during the debrief has a fair bit of realism involved.