Although the Battle of Britain is over, the campaign for Singapore is about to begin.
After Arthur Donahue survived the fight in Europe, which he documented in Tally Ho! Yankee in a Spitfire, he was posted to a new squadron headed overseas.
Donahue reveals the frustration felt by pilots as they were cooped up on transport ships; en route they learn that the U.S. has been drawn into the war, and that their destination is now Singapore.
Though saddened by the news, Donahue reveals a glimpse into the American people’s earlier attitude towards those who, like him, had volunteered with the British: they saw them as outlaws.
Adapting to new conditions, Donahue transports the reader once more into his flying boots as he readies himself in the sweltering jungles of Malaya, before flying on to Singapore and a new form of aerial warfare against the Japanese.
Filled with technical insights and descriptions of what his senses experienced, it is nonetheless a harder, more visceral chapter as he is wounded and defeat looms beyond on the horizon.
Last Flight from Singapore is Donahue’s vivid account of the months immediately after those described in Tally-Ho! Yankee in a Spitfire, concluding his memoir of service as an American in the R.A.F.
Praise for Arthur Donahue
"Donahue makes no attempt either to dramatize or underplay his experiences. He tells them in a simple, unvarnished manner, much as if he were sitting down with some friends back home. The result is pretty close to what the real thing must have been." The New York Times
Arthur Gerald Donahue (1913-42) was an American fighter pilot who volunteered to fly for the R.A.F in 1940, fighting in the Battle of Britain. In March 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, before becoming the first American to command an all-English Squadron later in the year. Reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he was killed in action in September 1942, aged twenty-nine.
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