Victor Maslin Yeates (30 September 1897 — 15 December 1934), often abbreviated to V. M. Yeates, was a British fighter pilot in World War I. He wrote Winged Victory, a semi-autobiographical work widely regarded as one of the most realistic and moving accounts of aerial combat and the futility of war. Life Yeates was born at Dulwich and educated at Colfe's School, where according to Henry Williamson he read Keats under the desk during Maths, explored woods, fields and ponds and kept a tame tawny owl. Yeates joined the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps in 1916 and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force) in May 1917. Yeates married in July 1917, aged only 19 and while still training, to the total disapproval of his parents. Initially serving with No. 46 Squadron, to which he was posted in February 1918, by then he had logged twelve hours of dual flying instruction and fifty-three hours solo, of which the last thirteen hours were in a Sopwith Camel. The German Spring Offensive began just over a month later, and he flew intensively, many operational flights consisting of highly dangerous ground strafing and bombing. Yeates was posted to 80 Sqn on 9 August from 46 Sqn and joined B Flight, and left the Squadron on 31 August after the move to a new airfield at Allonville. He was invalided back to England suffering from Flying Sickness D (for Debility), brought about by the strain and conditions of constant flying. He was given one month's sick leave, further extended to 7 November 1918, when he was transferred to TDS Fairlop as an assistant flying instructor, being finally discharged on 23 May 1919. Yeates flew 110 operations, 248 hours in Sopwith Camels, force landed four times, was shot down by ground fire and scored five victories (two enemy aircraft destroyed, a share in three others and with Capt. D. R. MacLaren brought down a balloon in flames), thereby achieving "ace" status. Yeates died of tuberculosis at Fairlight Sanatorium, Hastings in December 1934. He was survived by his wife Norah Phelps Yeates (née Richards) and his four children Mary, Joy Elinor, Guy Maslin and Rosalind; all of whom had lived with Yeates in a small house in Kent on the Sidcup by-pass of the Dover Road. Winged Victory Yeates is now best known for his semi-autobiographical book Winged Victory, which remains