The Millionaires’ Squadron: The Remarkable Story of 601 Squadron and the Flying Sword

Imagined by an aristocrat in White's Club, London in 1925, a part-time squadron of wealthy young men with their own private aircraft was incorporated into a newly-established combat-ready Auxiliary Air Force, first as bombers, then fighters. The pre-war years combined serious training with frivolity and mischief, but the outbreak of war in 1939 changed that. Despite their social rank the pilots were thrust into the heart of the action, with mortality proving to be the great social leveler. From pampered pre-war lifestyles to perilous front-line deployment, their career trajectories featured the kind of radical changes of pace and focus that war alone engenders. In the process, the surviving members of 601 were changed forever. Through the battles of Britain, Malta, the African desert and Italy the squadron's composition was transformed, and by war's end only a minority were British and none were millionaires. Britain had changed too, and the re-formed squadron filled with a combination of veterans and young middle-class ex-service pilots.