{ "item_title" : "Spitfires", "item_author" : [" Becky Aikman "], "item_description" : "Lively and entertaining . . . Those fearlessly determined female pilots are the professional forebears of the women who would slowly break down barriers in the U.S. military in the decades that followed . . . And what forebears those women were. -The Washington PostA soaring narrative.-Keith O'Brien, New York Times bestselling author of Fly GirlsThe heart-pounding true story of the daring American women who piloted the most dangerous aircraft of World War II through the treacherous skies of Britain.They were crop dusters and debutantes, college girls and performers in flying circuses-all of them trained as pilots. Because they were women, they were denied the opportunity to fly for their country when the United States entered the Second World War. But Great Britain, desperately fighting for survival, would let anyone-even Americans, even women-transport warplanes. Thus, twenty-five daring young aviators bolted for England in 1942, becoming the first American women to command military aircraft. In a faraway land, these spitfires lived like women decades ahead of their time. Risking their lives in one of the deadliest jobs of the war, they ferried new, barely tested fighters and bombers to air bases and returned shot-up wrecks for repair, never knowing what might go wrong until they were high in the sky. Many ferry pilots died in crashes or made spectacular saves. It was exciting, often terrifying work. The pilots broke new ground off duty as well, shocking their hosts with thoroughly modern behavior. With cinematic sweep, Becky Aikman follows the stories of nine of the women who served, drawing on unpublished diaries, letters, and records, along with her own interviews, to bring these forgotten heroines fully to life. Spitfires is a vivid, richly detailed account of war, ambition, and a group of remarkable women whose lives were as unconventional as their dreams.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/63/557/656/1635576563_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "31.99", "online_price" : "31.99", "our_price" : "31.99", "club_price" : "31.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "31.99" } }

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In the skies over England, as World War II raged and the Royal Air Force scrambled to meet the aerial German threat, a dashing young pilot pulled alongside the RAF Spitfire he had spotted in the skies. Eager to blow off a little steam, he signaled to the pilot that he wanted a mock fight, but was ignored. Bemused, he signaled again. You can imagine his surprise when the pilot inside the sleek fighter plane pulled off their flying cap, shook out a head of long, glossy brown hair, blew him a kiss and darted away through the clouds. He had encountered one of the adventurous American women serving as ferry pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary, and she had places to be. In Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II, author Becky Aikman investigates the little-known history of daring women ferry pilots who opted to join the RAF when the U.S. military wouldn’t have them. Aikman is adept at tackling the inner dynamics of female relationships (her previous books, Saturday Night Widows and Off the Cliff, also feature groups of women brought together by unusual circumstances), but the way she brings forward the inner lives of the 25 American women who found themselves piloting bombers and fighter jets from factories to air bases is perhaps her most impressive feat yet. Aikman’s research is thorough: These pilots left their homes in the USA for England in an effort to remake themselves, and Aikman is able to hold in one hand the women they intentionally became, while also sympathetically revealing the pasts they hid from sight. Aikman accesses the inner lives of these brilliant, complicated women as they navigated war, one another and the fight for their own right to a future in the skies. Within the history we think we know so well lie unique, feeling individuals, working under constant threat of ever-present danger both to serve their country and for a taste of exhilarating freedom like they’d never known. Spitfires truly enthralls.

Read our starred review of 'Spitfires' by Becky Aikman.