Winkle
The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot
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Narrated by:
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Steve John Shepherd
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Paul Beaver
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By:
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Paul Beaver
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
The daring life story and astonishing adventures of Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown - Britain's greatest-ever pilot.
Small in stature but immense in reputation and talent, there was more to Eric 'Winkle' Brown than met the eye.
The pilot who set the standard for Britain's golden age of aviation, Winkle cemented his worldwide fame with incredible skill, extraordinary daring - and nerves of steel when things went wrong. From shooting down Luftwaffe bombers from the deck of a carrier in the Battle of the Atlantic and narrowly escaping death when his ship was torpedoed, to accumulating a never-to-be repeated litany of world records and firsts as a test pilot, his unparalleled flying career saw him take the controls of over four hundred different kinds of aircraft - more than any other pilot in history.
A rival to Chuck Yeager and hero to Neil Armstrong, by the time of his appearance on Desert Island Disc's 1000th episode Winkle had become a legend in his own lifetime, and by his death, a national treasure.
But despite his enormous fame, there have always been mysteries at the heart of Winkle's story. To truly understand this fascinating but secretive man is to grapple with questions that have intrigued and confounded biographers throughout his extraordinary life.
Drawing on previously unseen documents and unfettered access to Winkle's own personal archive Paul Beaver records a life with more twists and turns than a Battle of Britain dogfight - which was, of course, something Winkle had taken part in himself - uncovering the complex and enigmatic man behind the legend - the real story of Britain's greatest pilot.
A story Winkle insisted could only be told after his death . . .
©2023 Paul Beaver (P)2023 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
For more than 30 years, Giora Even-Epstein flew fighters for the Israel Air Force, achieving recognition as a highly skilled military aviator and the highest-scoring jet-mounted ace with the most number of confirmed victories in the French Mirage. Having overcome numerous hurdles just to learn how to fly, he went on to compile a record of Arab MiGs and Sukhoi kills that bettered any other combat aviators' tally in the entire world. This fast-moving autobiography details his experiences particularly in the intense conflicts of 1967, the Six Day War, and 1973, the Yom Kippur War.
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Not a writer
- By Checco on 11-26-21
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War's End
- An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission
- By: Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney, James A. Antonucci - contributor, Marion K. Antonucci - contributor
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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On August 9, 1945, on the tiny island of Tinian in the South Pacific, a 25-year-old American Army Air Corps major named Charles W. Sweeney climbed aboard a B-29 Superfortress in command of his first combat mission, one devised specifically to bring a long and terrible war to a necessary conclusion.... The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs.
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the history of the details.
- By Don on 10-23-24
By: Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney, and others
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Harnessing the Sky
- Frederick "Trap" Trapnell, the U.S. Navy's Aviation Pioneer, 1923-1952
- By: Frederick M. Trapnell Jr., Dana Trapnell Tibbitts
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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A pilot of calculated courage, "Trap" entered the Navy when test pilots were more like stuntmen than engineers. Airplanes had not yet come into their own as weapons of war, and they had an undeveloped role in the fleet. His vision and leadership shaped the evolution of naval aviation through its formative years and beyond. When the threat of war in 1940 raised an alarm over the Navy's deficiency in aircraft - especially fighters - Trap was appointed to lead the Flight Test Section to direct the development of all-new Navy airplanes.
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Superb Book
- By Peter H. Christensen on 09-27-19
By: Frederick M. Trapnell Jr., and others
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Silent Warriors, Incredible Courage
- The Declassified Stories of Cold War Reconnaissance Flights and the Men Who Flew Them
- By: Wolfgang W. E. Samuel
- Narrated by: Wayne M. Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Silent Warriors, Incredible Courage is a history of the Cold War overflights of the Soviet Union, its allies, and the People's Republic of China, based on extensive interviews with dozens of pilots who flew these dangerous missions. Through extensive research of existing literature on the overflights and interviews conducted by Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, this audiobook reveals the story of the entire overflight program through the eyes of the pilots and crew who flew the planes.
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Worst Narration Ever
- By Nathan Hoag on 04-09-21
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Enola Gay
- Mission to Hiroshima
- By: Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan-Witts
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Painstakingly researched, the story behind the decision to send the Enola Gay to bomb Hiroshima is told through firsthand sources. From diplomatic moves behind the scenes to Japanese actions and the US Army Air Force's call to action, no detail is left untold. Touching on the early days of the Manhattan Project and the first inkling of an atomic bomb, investigative journalist Gordon Thomas and his writing partner Max Morgan-Witts, take WWII enthusiasts through the training of the crew of the Enola Gay and the challenges faced by pilot Paul Tibbets.
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Poor reader
- By Dee on 04-17-22
By: Gordon Thomas, and others
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Inferno
- By: Joe Pappalardo
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Joe Pappalardo's Inferno tells the true story of the men who flew the deadliest missions of World War II, and an unlikely hero who received the Medal of Honor in the midst of the bloodiest military campaign in aviation history.
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Great listen I
- By Amazon Customer on 06-21-21
By: Joe Pappalardo
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Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot
- By: Starr Smith, Walter Cronkite
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II - and they were legion - Jimmy Stewart was unique. On December 7, when the attack on Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of war, Stewart was already in uniform - as a private on guard duty south of San Francisco at the Army Air Corps Moffet Field. Seeing war on the horizon, Jimmy Stewart, at the height of his fame after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and his Oscar-winning turn in The Philadelphia Story in 1940, had enlisted several months earlier.
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After-action intelligence report
- By David on 04-20-18
By: Starr Smith, and others
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Wings on My Sleeve
- By: Eric 'Winkle' Brown
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The autobiography of one of the greatest pilots in history. In 1939 Eric Brown was on a University of Edinburgh exchange course in Germany, and the first he knew of the war was when the Gestapo came to arrest him. They released him, not realising he was a pilot in the RAF volunteer reserve - and the rest is history. Eric Brown joined the Fleet Air Arm and went on to be the greatest test pilot in history, flying more different aircraft types than anyone else.
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Fascinating memoir
- By Jean on 07-05-16
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Dead Reckoning
- The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor
- By: Dick Lehr
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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“AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL.” At 7:58 a.m. on December 7, 1941, an officer at the Ford Island Command Center frantically typed what would become one of the most famous radio dispatches in history as the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on the American navy stationed in Hawaii. In a little over two hours, the Japanese killed more than 2,400 Americans and propelled the US’s entry into World War II. Dead Reckoning is the story of the mission to avenge that devastating strike.
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Half Soap Opera, target audience 20 something male
- By Donald L. Hogan on 03-20-21
By: Dick Lehr
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Jayhawk
- Love, Loss, Liberation and Terror over the Pacific
- By: Jay A. Stout, George L. Cooper
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in the Philippines to an American father and a Filipina mother, George Cooper is one of the few surviving veteran pilots who saw action over such fearsome targets as Rabaul and Wewak. Not just another flag-waving story of air combat, Jayhawk describes the war as it really was - a conflict with far-reaching tentacles that gripped and tore at not only the combatants, but also their families, friends, and the way they lived their lives.
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An absolute must for any student of the Pacific Air War
- By Ginger on 10-07-20
By: Jay A. Stout, and others
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Soaring to Glory
- A Tuskegee Airman's Firsthand Account of World War II
- By: Philip Handleman, Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr.
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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He had to sit in a segregated rail car on the journey to army basic training in Mississippi in 1943. But two years later, the 20-year-old African American from New York was at the controls of a P-51, prowling for Luftwaffe aircraft at 5,000 feet over the Austrian countryside. This is the remarkable true story of Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Award-winning aviation writer Philip Handleman re-creates the harrowing action and heart-pounding drama of Stewart's combat missions....
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Disappointed these extraordinary Men...
- By Damian on 04-20-20
By: Philip Handleman, and others
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Fighter Group
- The 352nd “Blue-Nosed Bastards” in World War II
- By: Lt. Col. Jay A. Stout
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Jay A. Stout breaks new ground in World War II history with this gripping account of one of the war’s most highly decorated American fighter groups. Stout combines the storytelling gifts and careful research for a seasoned historian with the combat experience of a former fighter pilot to tell the remarkable story of the 352nd Fighter Group. This isn’t just the story of a single fighter group; it’s the story of how the United States won the air war over Europe.
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This is a fantastic, through, in depth, and personal history of the 352nd fighter group.
- By S. H. Moore on 02-23-21
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Race of Aces
- WWII's Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle to Become the Master of the Sky
- By: John R. Bruning
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1942, America's deadliest fighter pilot, or "ace of aces" - the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker - offered a bottle of bourbon to the first US fighter pilot to break his record of 26 enemy planes shot down. Seizing on the challenge to motivate his men, General George Kenney promoted what they would come to call the "race of aces" as a way of boosting the spirits of his war-weary command.
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Boring, confusing storyline, some technical details wrong
- By ATM on 04-09-20
By: John R. Bruning
What listeners say about Winkle
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Leonard
- 06-22-23
Well done
The story was good but Eric's inferiority complex was repetitive and took away from the story. The reference to aircraft nomenclature means nothing to the novice.
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- Scotcat
- 10-08-23
Terrific life story
An amazing story,well told and well narrated. Incredible that Winkle lived to a ripe old age despite all his close shaves. Thoroughly enjoyed this Audible book!
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