Captain W.E. Johns worked tirelessly to establish James Bigglesworth DSO, MC, as the eminent British airman of the twentieth century instead of which he should have focussed on the one man who truly represented everything that was best about British aviation and the RAF - Oliver Marsden. During the Second World War, Marsden was shot down, captured by the Germans, and took part in planning a coup to kill Hitler. Post-war he established his reputation as a test pilot, while the nuclear-fraught wars of the 1980s earned him a V.C. and the coveted position of Chief of the Defence Staff. Not content with that, Marsden undertook a final operational mission leading a small force of bombers to destroy the remnants of the Soviet/Chinese forces, was forced down, undertook a monumental trek across Russia, and subsequently brought his crew home safely in style in a stolen Russian airliner. As he himself put it, "A pretty good life" as his belatedly published autobiography proves.
