Editing Roald Dahl (section)

== Fighter pilot ==
[[File:Roald Dahl's leather flying helmet.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Dahl's leather flying helmet on display in the [[Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre]] in Great Missenden|alt=Dahl's flying helmet]]
In August 1939, as the Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds of [[Germans]] living in [[Dar-es-Salaam]]. Dahl was commissioned as a [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] into the [[King's African Rifles]], commanding a platoon of [[Askari]] men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army.{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|p=116|ref=none}}

In November 1939, Dahl joined the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) as an [[aircraftman]] with service number 774022.<ref name="LG5907" /> After a {{convert|600|mi|km|adj=on}} car journey from Dar es Salaam to [[Nairobi]], he was accepted for flight training with sixteen other men, of whom only three survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in a [[De Havilland Tiger Moth]], he flew solo;{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|p=120|ref=none}} Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, at [[RAF Habbaniya]], {{convert|50|mi|km}} west of [[Baghdad]]. Following six months' training on [[Hawker Hart]]s, Dahl was [[Officer (armed forces)|commissioned]] as a [[pilot officer]] on 24 August 1940, and was judged ready to join a [[Squadron (aviation)|squadron]] and face the enemy.<ref name="LG5907"/>{{sfn|Conant|2008|p=3}}

[[File:Gloster Gladiator.jpg|thumb|left|Dahl was flying a [[Gloster Gladiator]] when he crash landed in the Libyan desert.|alt=A Gloster Gladiator plane]]

He was assigned to [[No. 80 Squadron RAF]], flying obsolete [[Gloster Gladiator]]s, the last [[biplane]] [[fighter aircraft]] used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training in [[aerial combat]] or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl and another pilot were ordered to fly their Gladiators by stages from Abu Sueir (near [[Ismailia]], in Egypt) to 80 Squadron's forward [[airstrip]] {{convert|30|mi|km}} south of [[Mersa Matruh]]. On the final leg, they could not find the airstrip and, running low on fuel and with night approaching, Dahl was forced to attempt a [[Aviation accidents and incidents|landing]] in the desert.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7934421/Roald-Dahl-the-plane-crash-that-gave-birth-to-a-writer.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7934421/Roald-Dahl-the-plane-crash-that-gave-birth-to-a-writer.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Roald Dahl: the plane crash that gave birth to a writer|date=9 August 2010|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=16 September 2014|last1=Sturrock|first1=Donald}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded.{{sfn|Warren|1988|pp=12, 87}} He managed to drag himself away from the wreckage and lost consciousness. His colleague, Douglas McDonald, had landed safely and was able to comfort Dahl until they were rescued.<ref>Sturrock (2010) pp.131-132.</ref> He wrote about the crash in his first published work.{{sfn|Warren|1988|pp=12, 87}} Dahl came to believe that the head injury he sustained in the crash resulted in his creative genius.<ref>{{cite web |title=Roald Dahl's revolutionary work in brain injury |url=https://www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk/brain-injury-information/latest/roald-dahls-revolutionary-work-in-brain-injury |website=The Children's Trust |access-date=18 December 2023 |date=13 September 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Gordon S. |title=Roald Dahl's Brain Damage May Have Contributed to His Work |url=https://tbilaw.com/blog/roald-dahls-brain-damage-may-contributed-work/ |website=Brain Injury Law Group |date=20 October 2016 |access-date=18 December 2023}}</ref>

Dahl was rescued and taken to a [[first aid|first-aid]] post in [[Mersa Matruh]], where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He remained blind for six weeks due to massive swelling of the brain.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Evans |first1=Greg |title=The Marvellous LIfe of Roald Dahl |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Marvellous-Life-Of-Roald-Dahl/ |website=Historic UK |access-date=18 December 2023}}</ref> He was transported by train to the [[Royal Navy]] hospital in [[Alexandria]]. There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. An RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead into the [[no man's land]] between the Allied and Italian forces.{{sfn|Dahl|2013b|p=103}}

[[File:Hurricane_mk1_r4118_fairford_arp.jpg|thumb|A [[Hawker Hurricane]] Mk 1, the aircraft type in which Dahl engaged in aerial combat over Greece|alt=A Hawker Hurricane Mk 1]]

In February 1941, Dahl was discharged from the hospital and deemed fully fit for flying duties. By this time, 80 Squadron had been transferred to the [[Battle of Greece|Greek campaign]] and based at [[Eleusina]], near [[Athens]]. The squadron was now equipped with [[Hawker Hurricane]]s. Dahl flew a replacement Hurricane across the Mediterranean Sea in April 1941, after seven hours' experience flying Hurricanes. By this stage in the Greek campaign, the RAF had only 18 combat aircraft in Greece: 14 Hurricanes and four [[Bristol Blenheim]] light bombers. Dahl flew in his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over the city of [[Chalcis]]. He attacked six [[Junkers Ju 88]]s that were bombing ships and shot one down. The next day, he shot down another Ju 88.{{sfn|Thomas|2003|p=36}}

On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in an event he called the [[Battle of Athens (1941)|Battle of Athens]], alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, [[Pat Pattle]], and Dahl's friend [[David Coke]]. Of 12 Hurricanes involved, five were shot down and four of their pilots killed, including Pattle. Greek observers on the ground counted 22 German aircraft downed, but because of the confusion of the aerial engagement, none of the pilots knew which aircraft they had shot down. Dahl described it as "an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side".{{sfn|Dahl|2013b|p=151}}

In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled in [[Haifa]] to take part in [[Operation Exporter]]. From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for a period of four weeks, shooting down a [[Vichy French Air Force]] [[Potez 63]] on 8 June and another Ju 88 on 15 June. In a memoir, Dahl recounts in detail an attack by him and his fellow Hurricane pilots on the Vichy-held [[Rayak Air Base|Rayak airfield]]. He says that as he and his fellow Hurricane pilots swept in:

<blockquote>... low over the field at midday we saw to our astonishment a bunch of girls in brightly coloured cotton dresses standing out by the planes with glasses in their hands having drinks with the French pilots, and I remember seeing bottles of wine standing on the wing of one of the planes as we went swooshing over. It was a Sunday morning and the Frenchmen were evidently entertaining their girlfriends and showing off their aircraft to them, which was a very French thing to do in the middle of a war at a front-line aerodrome. Every one of us held our fire on that first pass over the flying field and it was wonderfully comical to see the girls all dropping their wine glasses and galloping in their high heels for the door of the nearest building. We went round again, but this time we were no longer a surprise and they were ready for us with their ground defences, and I am afraid that our chivalry resulted in damage to several of our Hurricanes, including my own. But we destroyed five of their planes on the ground.<ref>Dahl, Roald (1986). ''Going Solo''. London: Jonathan Cape, p. 193.</ref></blockquote>

Despite this somewhat light-hearted account, Dahl also noted that, ultimately, Vichy forces killed four of the nine Hurricane pilots in his squadron. Describing the Vichy forces as "disgusting", he stated that "... thousands of lives were lost, and I for one have never forgiven the Vichy French for the unnecessary slaughter they caused."<ref>Dahl, ''Going Solo''.</ref>
 
When he began to get severe headaches that caused him to black out, he was invalided home to Britain where he stayed with his mother in [[Buckinghamshire]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Roald Dahl: The fighter pilot |url=https://www.roalddahl.com/blog/2015/november/roald-dahl-the-fighter-pilot |access-date=21 January 2020 |website=Roald Dahl.com |archive-date=25 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025230422/http://www.roalddahl.com/blog/2015/november/roald-dahl-the-fighter-pilot |url-status=dead}}</ref> Although at this time Dahl was only a pilot officer on probation, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as a [[pilot officer]] and promoted to war substantive [[flying officer]].<ref name=LG35292 />