First published under the pseudonym of Flying Officer X, H E Bates’s heroic stories of the exploits of British pilots during the Second World War created a sensation when they appeared in 1942, selling over two million copies all over the world. This book is a one-volume edition of these stories, which first appeared under the titles of THE GREATEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD and HOW SECRET THE BRAVE. While writing them, Bates lived among the often painfully young bomber crews and recorded their lives both in combat and on the ground with a poignancy that deeply moved the generation that lived through the war. These tales are immensely readable as an account of the R.A.F. in war time, reflecting Bates’s mastery both of the art of description and of storytelling.