All Things Historical

Biggles Series by W. E. Johns

Time period: WWI-WWII-Cold War

Features: Boy's Own. Shell-shocked teenagers. British Royal Flying Corps during WWI. Found family flying planes and having adventures during WWII. Aeroplane adventures. Aeroplanes.

Why is this interesting?:

Aerial warfare in WWI was a madhouse. A pilot’s tenure averaged at around 17.5 airborne hours. Their machines were little more than wood, canvas, and engines. The RFC was nicknamed ‘Royal Flying Circus’, and the after-hours were spent drinking heavily.

James ‘Biggles’ Bigglesworth runs away from school to join up, and enters the squadron as a short, delicately-faced boy with girlish hands. He witnesses planes blowing up and friends being killed, and suffers perpetual PTSD. Most of it is in the background, but it -is- there: Just another reality of being a pilot. There are quite a few references to 'flying nerves', and the mental condition of the pilots do not go unremarked upon.

”He broke into a peal of nerve-jarring laughter which ended in something like a sob. 'Get me a drink somebody, please,' he pleaded. 'Lord! I am tired.”

He later finds a friend in Algy, his cousin who likes flowers(To the point where he shoots up a German flower-garden in an act of revenge), and an enemy in Erich Von Stalhein, a German who keeps popping up throughout the wars.

Most of the stories are either self-contained short stories, or longer boy's own adventures with spying and mysterious lands. The dogfight scenes are part of the main draw, as W. E. Johns was a pilot himself. This shines through in the action:

”Biggles knew it, too, and waited with the calculating patience of the experienced air fighter. He saw the earth, a whirling band of brown and yellow, floating up to meet him, and saw the first movement of the Pfalz's tail as the German pilot kicked on top rudder to pull out of the spin. With his right hand gripping the firing lever he levelled out, took the silver and blue machine in his sights, and as its nose came up, fired. The range was too close to miss. The stricken Pfalz reared high into the air like a rocketing pheasant as the pilot convulsively jerked the joystick into his stomach; it whipped over and down in a vicious engine stall, and plunged nose first into the earth. Biggles could hear the crash above the noise of his engine, and caught his breath as a cloud of dust rose high into the air.”

Later books dip into WWII and the cold war. The WWII books are considered to be ‘second best’ of the lot(And still very good books in their own right), while the cold war books are known for being less well-written and batshit crazy. But still entertaining.

Where do I find it?

Do the honourable thing and get a reprint. Red Fox has re-released all of the WWI-books in a format close to the original. You can also ask mum or dad for a copy from their attic, alternatively shell out five-hundred grand on the second-hand market. Be warned that these might have expletives and references to drinking taken out, leaving pilots risking their lives for cartons of ‘pre-war lemonade’.