World War One pilots were the knights of the sky & the press & public idolised them as gallant young heroes. At just twenty-three Major Stanley Woolley is the old man & commanding officer of Goshawk Squadron. He abhors any notion of chivalry in the clouds & is determined to obliterate the decent gentlemanly outlook of his young public school-educated pilots
- for their own good. But as the war goes on he is forced to throw greener & greener pilots into the meat grinder. Goshawk Squadron finds its gallows humour & black camaraderie no defence against a Spandau bullet to the back of the head.