To Scale the Skies: The Story of Group Captain J.C. ‘Johnny’ Wells DFC and BAR

With humble beginnings as an RAF apprentice, Johnny Wells progressed to pilot and rose to the higher echelons of command at the Air Ministry. From idyllic pre-war training, he would fly bombers against rebels over Iraq, combat Fw190s over England in the newly introduced and equally dangerous Typhoon; he would undertake hazardous low-level anti-shipping strikes in the English Channel, as well as train-busting sorties over occupied territory at night and close-support ground-attack operations across northern Europe following D-Day. Indeed, Wells ended the Second World War as one of the most successful and highly decorated Typhoon Wing Leaders in the Tactical Air Force. This well-researched account of one man’s rise through the ranks of the Air Ministry is finely illustrated with contemporary images and is an excellent testimony of what was required of air pilots during the Second World War. Wells’ story is both an inspiration and a gripping account of one man’s journey through a service career spanning more than three turbulent decades.
AUTHOR: Peter Cornwell has made a close study of the 1939-45 air war for more than 40 years, his first published work appearing in 1966. Since then, he has been the co-author/contributor to more than 20 books on the subject, but is probably best known for compiling the detailed aircraft loss lists for the ground-breaking Battle of Britain Then and Now and The Blitz Then and Now. His latest work is The Battle of France Then and Now.