As a child in France, my parents had a friend who was a bomber pilot in the French Air Forces during WWII. When his Amiot 143 was shot down over the French lines by a Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 during the disastrous 1940 campaign of France, he escaped to England and joined the Royal Air Force where he flew a Handley Page Halifax bomber.

He survived the War and when I met him, he was an old man with a memory full of amazing wartime stories free of any hatred or feelings of revenge. When he died, he left me with stories that gave me a different perspective on the realities of war.

His name was Jacques Lecornu and this work is dedicated to the memory of men such as this pilot.