title: Brotherhood of the Skies: Wartime Experiences of a Gunnery Officer and Typhoon Pilot
author: David Ince
description: David Inces remarkable life in flight is atmospherically told and skillfully conveys the urgency and mood of the times, the fascinating people he encountered, and the obstacles he met along the way. David lives in retirement in Winchester, Hampshire and is available for interview.
zlib_text: While Fates Permit
  
  Richard Townshend Bickers
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  © Richard Townshend Bickers 1985
  
  First published in Great Britain in 1985 by Robert Hale Ltd.
  
  This edition published in 2018 by Endeavour Media Ltd.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The title is taken from an epigram by Robert Herrick, “To Enjoy The Time”.
  
  While Fates permit, let’s be merry;
  
  Pass all we must the fatal ferry;
  
  And this our life, too, whirls away,
  
  With the rotation of the day.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Operational aircrew in the Second World War were always aware that their lives
  were whirling away and that the rotation of each day seemed alarmingly swift:
  so were others; men and women whose lives were involved with theirs. All made
  merry after their own fashion and opportunity.
  
  No reference is intended to the real squadrons whose numbers appear in this
  story about a bomber crew: they were all, anyway, in Fighter Command, and were
  used only for versimilitude: invented squadron numbers would be an anomaly
  against an otherwise authentic background.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  