Muhammad Farhan 11160140000074 4B

Novel Review

Book Title : Fighter Boys

Author : Patrick Bishop

Publisher : Harper Perennial

Date Published : 2007 Number of Page : 410

Genre : Epic Book Code : PAT/PBI NV1334

Take setting during the fire of World War II, Great Britain’s Royal Air
Force corps of fighter pilots have become the stuff of legends. Dubbed the
“Fighter Boys,” these young men, mostly between the ages of eighteen and
twenty-five, were all that stood between their island home and the German
invasion. In the months of the “phony war,” during the doomed Battle of France,
the Fighter Boys provided the support and peace of mind needed by both their
own people back home and their French allies. During the German Operation
Sealion and the Blitzkrieg over London in 1940, they were the only thread that
held their country together.

The aristocratic Manfred von Richthofen from the German “Luftwaffe”

Side and the monomaniac Albert Ball, the boyish top guns of southern England's
airfields in 1940. Ernie Pyle and Alan Moorehead - who were able to convey not
only the sounds and smells of battle, but more importantly empathised greatly
with the men who were doing the fighting. They are in one squadron with Albert
Ball. One man left behind to notice is Farrier, he is the last man standing in RAF
aircraft who fought on the shore of Dunkirk with his Rolls-Royce machine
aircraft.

If I was in that novel, I wish to be Albert Ball. Because the standout

characteristic and sometimes uncontrolable seemingly representate odd way to
fight a war. Being a commander in the squadron is not an easy task, and with his
characteristic that most people would think it’s weird, Ball deliver a massive
impact to the outcome of the battle. 38 confirmed takedown by his Splitfire.

Even though the British Royal Air Force was made up of men who, in the
main, had come from the working class or risen from the ranks, whose notions of
patriotism and duty were a shade different from those of the upper crust. Most
men had to believe that they would be spared but the odds were stacked against
survival, and witnessing the plane in front dissolve into a ball of fire and debris
did little to ease the nerves. Although they have known their chance to get a long
life is getting away, but they still hold their bravery level at max level to defend
their own country.

I don’t think many aspects of this novel need to be disliked, but the part
when the Britain finally surrender to the German is such a shame (linked to the
SS-GB novel).

If I changed the story, that means I must change the history. The story
overall is good, in this case, their fighting spirit and if I really have to, I would
change the story into a better condition to the Britain allies in the France,
Belgium, and Netherland’s shore.

My own thought to this novel is, it would be possible to beat the English in
England the way German had beaten them in France.

The moral story from this novel is or what we can learn from this novel is
the spirit of England’s renowned fighter pilot corps who were ordinary men, who
had to learn to deal with the stress and the fear of flying into battle, who had to
cope after watching friends and brothers being shot from the sky, who had to keep
going, to keep fighting after they had been pushed beyond all limits.