Jul

5

There is a nice passage in Going Solo by Roald Dahl. The Vichy French are their enemies and help to destroy any Englishmen trying to fight the Germans. Dahl's squadron passes over a Vichy airfield trying to neutralize it. Sure enough all the Frenchmen are showing off their aeroplanes to a group of attractive French girls in high heels enjoying some wine. Out of chivalry the British pass off the airfield to allow the women in their high heels to run into the hangars:

"We went round again, but this time we were no longer a surprise and they were ready for us with their ground defense and I am afraid that our chivalry resulted in damage to several of our Hurricanes. But we destroyed five of them on the ground."

Dahl's story contains innumerable examples of British incompetence in the control and direction of the air force in Greece and Egypt and it appears that 90% of the pilots there were killed, mostly unnecessarily. The fog of war and as in markets.


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