The Big Show

The Classic Account of WWII Aerial Combat

By: Pierre Clostermann

Narrated by: Julian Elfer

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

Finally in Audible

My father gave me a tattered copy of this book in the mid 1990’s. I’ve read it 4 times and at last, listened via Audible. The narrator sounds exactly as I imagined when I read the book.

The best fighter pilot memoir ever. Enjoy!

detail

this is one of the most detailed accounts of ww2 aerial combat. clearly due to the authors diligence in keeping a written daily journal. Few ww2 accounts provide this level of detail. Excellent

The details!

Wow! The absolute best aerial WWII story delivery, period. I’ve now listened to it intently twice, and plan on doing the same again. If you’re a fan of WWII aerial battles, then this must be on your list.

The savagery they endured daily

As a retired Fighter Pilot, I was amazed at how much combat they encountered and as often as they did and how much they pushed their equipment and the weather. How much they pushed themselves.

Amazing firsthand narrative

Moment a moment, the writer describes the daily risks encountered in seeking to destroy a foe, while facing outcomes that included injury, defeat and imprisonment or complete annihilation by the opponent, and injury or death by mechanical failure, misjudgment, or sheer bad luck. Training, teammates, ground crew and improvements in planes and weaponry helped him survive on this knife edge, in extreme duress. Survival was not likely among fighter pilots. Pilots saw the loss of comrades daily. and for one to survive and record his daily experiences so well is quite remarkable.