Down to Earth

“McGlashan carries us in the cockpit through night fighter sorties, wartime airline operations, and missions . . . a well-written narrative.” —Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine

In Down to Earth, Squadron Leader McGlashan reflects honestly on his enthralling and diverse RAF career, one that began with the rage and tube of Hawker biplanes in 1939 and closed in the jet era of the late 1950s.

Shot down over the beaches of Dunkirk in heated aerial combat, flying in support of the ill-fated landing at Dieppe and on clandestine night operations before D-Day, he takes an active role in some of the RAF’s most significant operations of World War Two. Interspersed throughout are tales of camaraderie and humor.

It is a journey of tremendous diversity, punctuated by a series of close calls and inevitable losses. Half a century later, retired and living in Australia, Kenneth McGlashan is drawn back to 1940 with the discovery of his crashed Hurricane surfacing though the sands of Dunkirk. In an emotional pilgrimage, he is reunited with the steed of his youth and its bullet-ridden cockpit. In spite of the many dangers he faced and despite evidence to the contrary, McGlashan regarded himself as nothing more than just another pilot; an ordinary man in extraordinary times.

Of the 3,000 allied airmen who flew in the Battle of Britain, only three percent could lay claim to the title of “ace.” Squadron Leader Kenneth McGlashan AFC always felt great honor in being counted among the 97 percent.

“There are some biographies that stand head and shoulders above the others, and this is one of them! . . . Beautifully written.” —Flypast