Peter given your taste in literature i.e. Ernest Gann, you may already have read The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann, a French pilot who flew for the RAF. He flew Spitfires then the Tempest, the development of the Typhoon. I can't recommend it highly enough. Just surviving the aeroplane (2,100 hp H24 Napier engine) was remarkable enough let alone surviving combat.
If anyone else on here has read it, jump inand back me up. Possibly the best book by a combat pilot.
