The Daily Telegraph obituaries are essential reading first thing in the

morning. Here is one from today’s paper, on WW2 air ace Frank Carey.

Sample: “On his sixth day of continuous combat, during which he bagged some

14 ‘kills,’ Carey was shot down. He had attacked a Dornier 17 bomber and was

following it closely down in its last moments; the pilot was dead but the

surviving rear gunner pressed his trigger to set Carey’s Hurricane alight,

wounding him in a leg.

“The fire stopped, and Carey landed in a large field between Allied and

enemy lines. After thumbing a lift on the back of a Belgian soldier’s

motorcycle he joined a party of refugees until a British Army truck picked

him up.

“Eventually Carey arrived at a casualty clearing station in Dieppe where he

encountered the 16th Duke of Norfolk, a fellow patient who apologised that

he was only there with gout.”