That description of Geoffrey Stephenson, whose time as CO of the RAF Duxford-based No 19 Squadron came to a premature end in 1940, sums up one of the qualities that made him such an outstanding fighter pilot. Seventy years on from Stephenson’s death, testing a new F-100 Super Sabre in the USA, his biographer casts fresh light on a career that spanned several combat aircraft generations
It was a bright, cool, November 2019 afternoon in downtown Montgomery, Alabama —the Saturday of the Veterans’ Day weekend —and I found myself at the Oakwood Cemetery Annex preparing for the following day’s Anglo-French Remembrance Sunday parade. As the senior RAF officer at the nearby Maxwell Air Force Base, I would be leading the event, and I thought a quick recce of the site before the big occasion would be prudent. My recent arrival from Blighty and my studies at Air War College had kept me busy to date, so, as a result, this was my first visit to the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the US. What I found that afternoon would have a profound and lasting effect on me.
As I took in the peaceful vista, I walked among the well-kept graves and read the names of the 78 young airmen who were killed dur…
