High Blue Battle

High Blue Battle is an annotated and edited reprint of the War Diary for No.1/401 Squadron, Canada's longest serving and most successful fighter squadron of World War II. No. 1 squadron was formed several years prior to the outbreak of war. Following Canada's decleration of war against the Germans, the squadron--at the time equipped with Hurricanes--was sent to England. After serving gallantly in the Battle of Britain, No. 1 (RCAF) was transferred from airfield to airfield with frustrating regularity. With the formation of more exclusively-Canadian squadrons, the RAF began assigning RCAF squadrons 400 numerals, hence No. 1 (RCAF) became No. 401 for the duration of the war. From the end of the Battle of Britain until the invasion in 1944, No. 401 participated in numerous fighter sweeps and escort missions. Shortly after the invasion, No. 401 was transferred to France, and until the end of the war operated out of airfields close to the front.As Dave McIntosh, author of the fabulous book Terror in the Starboard Seat, indicates in the introduction to High Blue Battle, the War Diary for No. 1/401 Squadron is exceptional in that, unlike other war diaries, it provides an anecdotal account of the squadron's day-to-day activities. Not only do we read about what pilots were lost or claimed victories during a given day, we learn more about the pilot's non-combative engagements (with booze and women) and, surprisingly, although somewhat infrequently, what the respective diarist's opinion was of some big-wig or new military regulation.On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and really wish that if possible more of such works be resurrected from the depths of the National Archives. The only matter of complaint that I have is that the editor apparently deleted number of entries that were repetative or provided no information of value. This no doubt made the book more accessable and practicle to publish, but for those people (such as myself) who revel in such minutiae, this is somewhat of a disappointment.