Grounded Eagles: Book I
David Goldman is shot down in flames in September 1940. Not only is his face burned beyond recognition, he is told he will never fly again. While the plastic surgeon recreates his face one painful operation at a time, the 22-year-old pilot must discover who he really is.
A Stranger in the Mirror was inspired by first-hand accounts of pilots who were severely burned when their aircraft caught fire as a result of combat during the Battle of Britain. With plastic surgery still in its infancy, these young men underwent multiple, torturous plastic surgery operations to recover their faces and regain the use of their hands. Perhaps the most famous account is that of Richard Hillary in his wartime classic The Last Enemy. Yet there are many others such as Geoffrey Page’s Shot Down in Flames.
While David “Banks” Goldman was a fictional character, the outline of his treatment is based on the accounts of Dr. McIndoe’s patients, who called themselves the “Guinea Pigs.” While Banks was only a minor character in Where Eagles Never Flew, he plays a more important role in my forthcoming novel on the Berlin Airlift. Telling the story of his recovery is both a means of explaining what happened to him in the gap between the books and is intended as a tribute to the pilots who were so horrendously disfigured while defending the UK from a Nazi invasion.
The psychological response of men to devastating wounds is always individual. Each man responds differently in accordance with their circumstances, character and psyche. Banks’ story is his own, complicated by his confused national identity and his difficult relations with his father. Likewise, while Ginger Bowles is fictional, his role is one that many people who have lost loved ones will recognize.