Roald Dahl

RAF Pilot World War 2

In September 1939 at the age of 23 war broke out Dahl signed up for the Royal Air Force in Nairobi. At first they laughed at his great height and called him "Lofty". He soon squashed himself into the cockpit of his Tiger Moth fighter plane and began training over Kenya and Iraq. Then in 1940 he joined 80 Squadron for action in western Egypt. One day he had a crash landing and was badly injured when his plane caught fire, Dahl had to roll out the cockpit.

"Things were beginning to hurt" he later wrote ."My face hurt the most. There was something wrong with my face. Something had happened to it. Slowly I put up a hand to feel it. It was sticky. My nose didn’t seem to be there".

He was injured so badly he spent months in Alexandria hospital. His nose had to be rebuilt and damage he got to spine gave him trouble for the rest of his life. But none of this held him back because several months later he went to Greece to fight and became a war hero. He shot down at least five enemy aircraft. His squadron leader said about him "There is no doubt in my mind that "Lofty" was a very good fighter pilot and was very gallant".

In 1941 his injuries from before kept giving him blackouts and headaches so for safety he was sent back home to England. When he got back his wonderful mom was waiting for him by the cottage gate.