The Last Enemy

by Richard Hillary

Overview

The Last Enemy recounts the struggles and successes of a young man in the Royal Air Force.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782433934
Publisher:	Michael O'Mara Books
Publication date:	11/10/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	212
File size:	596 KB

About the Author

Richard Hillary was born in Sydney, Australia in 1919 and brought up in England. Whilst at Trinity College, Oxford, the Second World War broke out. He joined 603 Squadron and became a Spitfire ace during the Battle of Britain. Shot down and horribly burned in September 1940, he was operated on several times by pioneering plastic surgeon, Archie Mcindoe. During his slow and painful recovery he wrote The Last Enemy, his very personal account of his experiences. The book is regarded as a one of the classic texts of the war but is also a window on the soul-searching of a complex hero. Hillary was desperate to fly again and during a night flying exercise on January 1943 his Bristol Blenheim MK.V crashed killing him and his radio/observer Sergeant Wilfrid Fison. Hillary was aged just twenty-three.