Pilotage
All of the ten stories in the book have a war pilot as the main character driving the plot of the narrative. Given such a premise, the stories dwell on the art and act of flying warplanes including the dramas and tragedies of warfare. In fact, Dahl himself served with Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot amassing several missions across Greece, Syria, and Africa. As such, he incorporates his own experiences of flying in the tales delving into the sense of danger and urgency that comes with pilotage.
War and Trauma
With war comes a huge cost, the stories focus on the different spheres and individuals that warfare affects directly. The main characters are mostly combatants thereby addresses the fear and grief that is part of their day-to-day activities. The short story “Katina” follows a young civilian and a victim of war who has suffered from both physical and emotional trauma. In “Yesterday Was Beautiful”, “Only This” and “Someone Like You” the author highlights how war affects those left behind during the war and after its conclusion.
Cheating Death
For most of the protagonists in the stories, there has been a brush with death in one way or another. The fighter pilots have had their fair share of plane crashes that either leaves them with severe injuries or just mild wounds. While they address the human cost of war, the narratives accentuate the luck of cheating death during such extreme violence. In “Katina” the eponymous character has survived a bomb blast but is left with the trauma of escaping death. In the wreckage tales, for instance, “Beware The Dog” the pilot crashes and loses consciousness but finds himself under the care of doctors.
