1 ‘I’d just come from the war …’: cited in Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid, p. 169
2 ‘The Eighth must do well …’: Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, p. 83
3 ‘We had a cover of Spitfires …’: AI with Ralph Burbridge
4 ‘Well, I hardly know …’: Butcher Diary, 23/7/1942, EPL
5 ‘At last the lads …’: Cheall, Fighting Through from Dunkirk to Hamburg, p. 38
6 ‘I figured it was bad …’: AI with Warren ‘Bing’ Evans
7 ‘They had their hearts …’: ibid
8 ‘Sorry, we just can’t …’: cited in Mowat, And No Birds Sang, p. 7
9 ‘Thank heavens, this is it! …’: ibid, p. 10
10 ‘There you are, luv …’: ibid, p. 13
11 ‘Fragments fly about like flaming torches …’: cited in Hinchliffe, Lent Papers, pp. 46–7
12 ‘best friend and bartender one could wish for.’: cited in Heaton and Lewis, German Aces Speak, p. 160
13 ‘So you now have, what …’: cited in ibid, p. 122
14 ‘He arrived in an Air Commodore’s rig …’: Elmhirst Papers, CCA
15 ‘I think what is required here …’: cited in Connell, Auchinleck, p. 698
16 ‘A new army of the Middle East …’: Moorehead, African Trilogy, p. 421