Malta Spitfire - Memoirs of a Lone Wolf

"I never knew Navarre or Nungesser, but what I was able to learn of them — whom I deeply admired — confirms to me that Beurling was the pilot of this war they would have most admired…" It is in these terms that Pierre Clostermann, "Premier chasseur de France", the greatest French ace of the Second World War, introduces George Beurling in The Big Show.

The spirit of the greatest tales of aerial adventure breathes through the memoirs of George Beurling, written in 1943 just after his tour of operations over Malta (which ended in October 1942). Much of the fire of a René Mouchotte, Pierre Clostermann or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry can be found in this first-hand account of the exploits of the greatest Canadian ace.

During the summer of 1942, in just 14 days of combat, Beurling destroyed 27 German and Italian aircraft. Shot down in October 1942, he recounts in his memoirs the carnage and the intoxication of combat in the battle for the Mediterranean. Beurling, who had learned to fly as a teenager, was rejected by the RCAF but managed to enlist in the RAF in 1939, where he trained as a Spitfire pilot. He quickly acquired a reputation as an exceptional marksman. He was also a lone wolf, a pilot who regularly broke formation and did not scrupulously follow orders.

In June 1942, he was sent to the small island of Malta, the last slender Allied possession in the region, besieged for months. Beurling's remarkable victories not only helped the Allies turn the tide in their favour, but had a decisive effect in lifting a morale that was in desperate need of it.

He survived the war, but met his death on 21 May 1948 while ferrying an aircraft from Italy to Palestine during the Arab-Israeli War. He was 26 years old.