Mustang Summer by Jim Thorn Some good reading with aircraft information and action over WWII Europe.
It was just after noon as the two Mustangs lined up together at the end of Temple Weymouth’s into wind runway. Five degrees of rudder trim dialled in to counteract the massive torque of the Merlin with its large clockwise rotating four blade paddle propellor, fuel selector checked to the left wing tank, the only tanks we are using on this mission, and throttle advanced to check temps, pressures and of course magnetos. All clear, Drury gives me the thumbs up and I respond likewise as we smoothly advance our throttles to three thousand rpm and maximum boost, remembering to keep bootfuls of right rudder in as both our steeds surge forward, tails up seconds later and held steady as our airspeed rapidly increases. Back gently on the stick at a little over a hundred miles an hour, revs, temps and pressures in the green, gear up, flaps up and we are climbing away into the crisp air of an English spring. Thirty seconds later we take up our southerly heading towards Calais barely a hundred miles distant.