A WW1 Adventure - The Journal & Times of RNAS Bomber Pilot Donald E Harkness

For almost a century, a WWI aviator's diaries, photographs, and sketches remained hidden though in plain sight in a living room display case. Now brought to light, his memoirs reveal that he was not just an accomplished and decorated bomber pilot (with a DSC bestowed upon him by the King of England), but a skilled story-teller and devotee of London's social life. His missions took him deep inside German-held territories where his primary targets included Zeppelin sheds, ammo depots, aerodromes and shipyards. While on a heavily defended raid near Ghent he was forced to crash-land his damaged plane in neutral Holland where he spent his internment assisting Belgian refugees and helping the Allied underground smuggle English citizens and downed pilots to safety. Though his life was suddenly cut short in an airplane accident in 1929, his legacy lives on in his writings which clearly capture his transcendent joy in doing what he loved most.