Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot
544 pages
Dr James Bosbotinis
To say that I have been looking forward to reading Paul Beaver’s biography of Eric Brown would be something of an understatement. This reviewer has a long-standing interest in all things military aviation, including perusing the pages of Eric Brown’s Wings of the Luftwaffe from a young age. Moreover, in 2014, I had the immense privilege of speaking to the great man himself. Unusually for a book review, a brief disclaimer is necessary: there are no spoilers in this review, although as a teaser one will point to page 26 and ‘Fearless Egbert’. The author, Paul Beaver, will be well-known to members of The Naval Review, as a distinguished historian, defence writer and commentator. He had also been a friend of Winkle for more than 40 years and had asked him if he could write his biography, Brown’s reply being positive albeit with one caveat, as Beaver explains, it would have to be after he had passed away. The resulting book is a more than fitting tribute to Brown.
Winkle starts in dramatic fashion, the first part of the prologue providing an account of an attempted intercept Brown made from the escort carrier HMS Audacity in the Bay of Biscay in October 1941 against a German Focke Wulf 200 Condor which very nearly ended in disaster. The second part of the prologue covers Brown’s 90th birthday celebrations, in particular Beaver’s request to write his biography. Following Brown’s death, Beaver received his archives, and he observes that “As expected, many of the papers backed up the incredible stories he had told in print and during his ninetieth birthday party. Some revealed yet even more astounding stories that he had chosen to keep to himself…And yet some stories couldn’t be so easily explained. Buried among this haul of documents were some incidents that truly shocked me.” The following 28 chapters then proceed to provide a highly illuminating, detailed account of Browns’ life, from birth through to the end.
Beaver has not just written a biography of Brown, the greatest pilot, and there is certainly much in this book that will greatly appeal to all those with an interest in the aviation aspects of Brown’s career, not least chapters 17 and 18 ‘The Farren Mission’ and ‘the Komet’ respectively; the human story is also very well-told. Beaver ably presents both Brown’s genius and his flaws, suggesting that “He was a master at handling a machine, but when it came to people, he struggled.” There were also tensions, and sometimes loose interpretations of rules – chapter 13 ‘The Canadians’ provides just one example. As an aviation nerd, the discussion of, for example, test flying various aircraft, operations from HMS Audacity, and assessing German developments in the closing months of and following the end of the Second World War are deeply fascinating, as is the entirety of the book. The four appendices; ‘Winkle’s Top Ten Aircraft’, ‘Winkle’s Least Favourite Aircraft’, ‘Winkle’s Firsts’, and ‘Winkle’s Aeroplanes’ are excellent. The selection of photos and artworks are also commendable.
Beaver has with Winkle, provided an excellently written, thoroughly engaging biography of Eric Brown, both the “greatest pilot” and the man. There is so much to commend in this book and it is without any doubt, a most fitting tribute and highly recommended.
