SPITFIRE PARADE
Details about three short stories originally published in
"Air Stories" in 1939 and 1940
The short story "Spitfire
Parade", does not
actually appear in the book "Spitfire Parade - Biggles at War" but is
certainly related to the contents of the book due to the characters it
features. The eight page short story
(which includes one and a half pages of illustrations) appeared in Air Stories
in March 1940 and Johns obviously liked the title as he used it for the book
published in August 1941. However,
Spitfire Parade is not the first story from Air Stories to feature the
characters who appear in the book Spitfire
Parade. We have to go back to the
October 1939 edition of "Air Stories" to find a six and a half page
story called Hard
Case" Carrington, with a half page illustration. "Mac" Maclaren is called to see his
Commanding Officer and meets Second-Lieutenant Tug Carrington, a former
Flyweight boxer, who doesn't take kindly to discipline but is one hell of a
fighter in the air. This First World War
story introduces a character that Johns will later use in the Second World War
based "Spitfire Parade".
The next story Johns has published in "Air Stories" is in
February 1940 and is called "So
This Is War" and this introduces us to three new characters. Firstly, George "Ferocity" Ferris,
Tex O'Hara and most importantly of all, Flight Lieutenant Bertie Augustus
Lissie, who would become a regular companion
of Biggles. This 8 page story (which
includes one full page and two half pages of illustrations) has Bertie meeting
Ferocity and Tex for the first time and they then fly their Spitfires (for this
is a Second World War story) over the enemy lines in France to escort back a
Blenheim that has been taking photos over Saarbrucken. The short story describes from Tex's point of
view the trials and tribulations of the flight.
It is only when they return that Tex sees that Bertie has the D.F.C. and
the A.F.C.
The following month we have another story about Ferocity,
Tex and Bertie. Air Stories of March
1940 published "Spitfire Parade" which is about "Ferocity"
Ferris of Umpty Squadron, R.A.F. and his flight
commander, the Hon. Bertie Lissie, D.F.C. now making
his second appearance in a W. E. Johns story.
It is again set in France before the fall of Dunkirk. When a pilot lands at Ferris's aerodrome, he
takes an instant dislike to him. When
the stranger reveals his Squadron Leader's uniform and says he is carrying
urgent dispatches, Ferris decides to follow him to protect him as he flies over
German territory. But all is not as it
seems and in due course the strange Squadron Leader is revealed to be a German
who is using trickery to obtain undamaged Spitfires! However, Ferris gets the better of the German
Squadron Leader and the captured Spitfires are revealed when all British
Spitfires put black paint on their wing tips.
This allows Ferocity, Bertie and "Tex" O' Hara to identify the
German flown Spitfires and shoot them down ..........
Does this story sound vaguely
familiar? If you know your First World
War Biggles stories then it will. The
main plot of the story is simply an updated rewrite of "Biggles
Takes the Bait" which was originally published in The Modern Boy Annual 1938 - so not that
long before this new version was published.
The character of Biggles is merely replaced by "Ferocity"
Ferris. The painting of the aircraft may
sound familiar as well. This was the
same idea in another Biggles story - J9982 - the third story from the first
Biggles book, "The Camels are Coming". Only in that story, to find the German flown
Sopwith Camel, the British painted their prop bosses blue. This additional part of the story was not in "Biggles
Takes the Bait" but was merely tacked onto this new version of the
story. I assume that writing these short
stories gave Johns the idea for a whole book of similar stories updated from
previous First World War stories he had written. The book "Spitfire Parade" was
eventually published in August 1941 but didn't feature any particular short
story called "Spitfire Parade"!
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