Winged Victory

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Winged Victory is an 1934 novel by English World War I fighter pilot Victor Maslin Yeates (still available through the Web). It concerns WWI, the existence pilots lead and the fear involved with flying early biplanes. Its protagonist, Tom Cundall, plans to leave the Royal Air Force when his service is up and live on a West Country farm with his friends. However, by the time he is due to leave the Air force, all his friends have "gone west". This leaves him a broken man. The narrative combination of action, pathos, humour and humility set against the huge casualties of the RAF in 1918 makes 'Winged Victory' one of the forgotten classics of Great War literature.

The book is semi-autobiographical, with V.M. Yeates (having served with 46 Squadron flying Sopwith Camels during 1918) also having lost all his friends in the war. T.E. Lawrence praised it on its release with the words "Admirable, admirable, admirable. One of the most distinguished histories of the war...masterly". However, it fell out of print due to a lack of a publisher and was soon forgotten. Yeates died in 1934 of TB.

It gained a brief resurgence in popularity during World War II with RAF pilots due to its accurate descriptions of air warfare, however it has since disappeared and may only be found occasionally on eBay, usually in the United Kingdom.It was republished on April 30th 2004 by Grub Street Publishing. ISBN 1-904010-65-2.