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The Big Show

The Classic Account of WWII Aerial Combat

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The Big Show

By: Pierre Clostermann
Narrated by: Julian Elfer
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About this listen

Pierre Clostermann DFC was one of the oustanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who flew with the RAF, he survived over 420 operational sorties, shooting down scores of enemy aircraft while friends and comrades lost their lives in the deadly skies above Europe.

The Big Show, his extraordinary account of the war, has been described as the greatest pilot's memoir of WWII.

©1948, 2008 Flammmarion (P)2020 Tantor Air Forces Armed Forces Military Military & War World War II War Aviation Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

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All stars
Most relevant
Good indepeth description of flying, air combat and life in the RAF in WW2. Highly recommended. 👍

Great story of aerial combat

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If you are an aviation enthusiast, then this book is simply a must! An amazing set of tales told brilliantly. Enthralling, exhilarating and poignant.

Can’t recommend it enough.

Exceptional

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Absolutely brilliant account of air combat in ww2, harrowing and upsetting in places but brilliant non the less. My only gripe is the narrator pronouncing "Angels" as Angles!

Awesome account

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A short but superb book by a French fighter pilot who served in the RAF during the war and became the living embodiment of the word 'Ace'. One of the best accounts I've read of WW2 air combat. Gives the lie to the myth of the RAF being 'Brylcreem Boys' having it soft during the war.

it also gives the lie to the myth that by 1944 the allies had complete air superiority over Europe. I've read so many books by armchair historians which talk about the destruction of the German fighter industry, the decimation of their pilots, the total dominance of the skies by the RAF and USAF in the later stages of the war, that you'd think every sortie must have been a turkey shoot, or a cakewalk where the Luftwaffe never showed up. Oh boy, does this book put that lie to bed, from someone who was actually there. Right up to the very end in 1945, the RAF Spitfires, Typhoons and Tempests were often set upon by hordes of BF109s, FW120s and jet-engined ME262s who outnumbered them ten or twenty to one.

At several points in the book where the author is describing the hell of flying into a hail of lead, bullets and cannon shells, with flak bursts riddling his aircraft, engines bursting into flames, wings flying off, comrades exploding in mid air or spiralling into the ground, I found myself wondering what special breed of courage it must have taken to not only not run away and fly the hell out of there as fast as you could, but to actually deliberately fly into that hell, and take on those overwheming odds knowing you had a slim chance of surviving. To return to base all shot up, having lost half your comrades, to suffer horrible injuries on crash landing, and after a week in hospital, get back in the plane and do it all again. Day after day, month after month, year after year.

And yet, the real miracle of this book is the modest, understated way the author describes his exploits, almost as if he were recalling a day at work. Four hundred and twenty missions he flew, experiencing hundreds of dogfights, destroying scores of enemy aircraft, tanks, flak towers, lorries, trains, et al (putting his life on the line every single time) and yet at the end of it all he didn't even seem to think he'd done anything special. Sadly, neither did society, apparently, who didn't exactly treat such men as the heroes they were, after the war. Most were expected to simply go back to work and not even talk about it, as if they'd done nothing out of the ordinary.

At the end of the book, I was left thinking what a decent human being Pierre Clostermann was, and how I'd like to have met him. He really was the epitomy of a special generation who didn't know just how special they truly were.

What it was really like to be a WW2 fighter pilot

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An amazing account of what must have been a terrifying time for anyone.

Thank you Peirre for telling the story of the brave Airmen who risked it all to bring peace.

Thank you

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