Amazing bravery and terrible suffering

One of our pilots is safe

Author: William Simpson

Publisher: Air World Books (2024), an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

ISBN: 978-1-03611-558-6

Some readers will recognise the title and wonder why a review is being written for a book that was first published some 83 years ago. The answer is that Air World Books has republished it together with a subsequent volume, The Way to Recovery, which was first published in 1944, to form a complete volume documenting ‘A Battle of France Airman’s story of survival and road to recovery’.

The volume is the autobiography of Squadron Leader Bill Simpson DFC and documents his story of amazing bravery and terrible suffering. Although Simpson went to France in September 1939 as a Bomber Command pilot with No 12 Squadron, his story can viewed as similar to those of many Fighter Command and other aircrew of the Battle of Britain and is a testament to the pioneering work carried out at the Royal Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead by Sir Archie McIndoe and his team.

Simpson was flying the Fairey Battle, a single-engined, underpowered aircraft that was considered obsolete at the time. It was poorly armed and armoured.

On 10 May 1940, the day the Germans invaded France and the Low Countries, Simpson was shot down by anti-aircraft fire while attacking a mechanised column in Luxembourg. He landed the severely damaged aircraft in Belgium with the cockpit on fire. His two fellow aircrew pulled Simpson from the fire, but he was severely burned, with his eyelids burnt away, his nose totally destroyed and his fingers reduced to ‘charred talons’.

His treatment in seven French hospitals in both the occupied and unoccupied zones is recounted in somewhat grim detail at times, but his appreciation of his French carers and visitors is easy to see. As he partially recovered, he undertook a month-long journey through Spain and Portugal and eventually arrived back in Britain in November 1941.

Over the next year, under McIndoe’s care, Simpson underwent many painful and pioneering operations. He also recorded (using a Dictaphone) his first book, which forms the first part of this re-published volume. In November 1942 Simpson was able to return to work at the Air Ministry but still faced more painful operations. Despite the pain and suffering he had nothing but praise for the medical staff and his friends who “helped him to regain his independence and dignity”.

Part two of this volume is Simpson’s second book, The Way of Recovery, first published in 1944 and which details, quite graphically at times, his long path back to some sort of normality. He left the RAF in 1948 and joined British European Airways as a press officer. He also championed the disabled and was awarded an OBE for nearly 30 years of service as a member of the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Disabled People.

In 1955 Simpson published a third book, I burned my fingers. 

Squadron Leader William Simpson OBE DFC died on 15 November 2005, aged 91.

At times the accounts related in this volume can be harrowing but the books provide a personal account of difficult times that is both inspirational and uplifting. Where many would have despaired at the situation Simpson found himself in, he was determined, with help, to make the best of it.

This volume is complemented by the addition of some appendices which include extracts from the 12 Sqn Operations Record Book for 10 May 1940 and the citations for the Gallantry Awards for Simpson and his crew.

This book is a story very well told. It tells of aircrew of Bomber Command but can easily be related to the experiences of many aircrew from all commands who has similar experiences and became ‘Guinea Pigs’.

AJS