Don’t Tel! Idy Mother or How To Fight Wars
On Your Own Terms. Peter Duggan-Smith with
_ Ray Eagle. The Golden Dog Press.

- OUR cultural myths abound with fabulous tales
of man usurping the godlike power of flight with
winged horses, magic carpets, wings of wax and
feathers and whatnot.
Thanks to two World Wars which convulsed

this century, tens of thousands of young men

were introduced to an aspect of the Wright
-brothers’ epoch-making achievement which

caused them to recall the cautionary element in

those ancient stories. The title of Peter Duggan-
‘Smith’s memoir of his long flying career is taken from a
-quote typical of the time: “Don’t tell my mother I have a
‘short-service commission in the Royal Air Force. She thinks
ay the piano in a brothel!”

A “short-service commission” was a euphemism for the

the ropes during the ear!
rounds of the Battle of y
‘Britain and anyone who
Lo could get a plane off the
ssioned with few. questions asked.
“and the odds against them, but the
nice berween the Black Troops and mercenaries
é young men did not fight for money, but for
‘glory and above all from a profound and instinc-
oloni: tism that was the finest legacy of the

-is.all but spent. To nurse.a pint of Guinness
t Bitter.in the cosy West. Vancouver Legion
iggan-Smith’s.last Mess is to drink in the ©
éxpart of the Viking Valhalla — “The
membe . gets older and fewer at
walls ‘are i

, v
a bartle in the

, that he .

v vi

OYNAMOS FANNY S Py

BOOK REVIEW

script Duggan-Snuith had been working on.
“Peter was a very modest man,” Eagle says, “But
I discovered he had a wonderful talent for writ-
ing, as well as telling stories.” Eagle is equally
modest about his contribution te the book:
“Perer had several people work on the manu-
script at different times. My main contribution
was to undo the damage they’d done and restore
Peter’s own voice.”
Ard what a voice it is; witty, wryly self-deprecat-
‘ing, endlessly entertaining, the voice of a man
you'd most like to be trapped in a cockpit with
at 10,000 ft., even with peuple shooting at you.
Duggan-Smith was the consummate survivor; as
a young man, flying vulneratic Blenheim bombers in the
RAF’s courageous but costly retaliatory raids against the tri-
umphant Germans, he knew he'd not only have to autfly the
Luftwaffe’s fighters, but out-manocuvre the RAF’s often
desperately self-destructive standing orders as well. His
crews must have loved him, not in the least for his knack of
celebrating their continued existence by recruiting the
loveiiest local ladies in England and France and finding the
nearest source of stimulating refreshments.

Duggan-Smith's “short service commission” ultimately
kept him in the air for more than three decades, through a
post-war career as a “high-flying” corporate pilot for
International Harvester and finally:as as a pilot for some
very unusual air services in war-torn Southeast Asia. The air
was Peter Duggan-Smith’s element; as with many wartime
pilots, the wings sewn to his chest were more than insignia
— they became symbols of initiation into a Promethean. life,
unbound by the chains of earth, a life lived in the clouds,
celebrated in the works of writers like Antoine de St.
Exupery. ek rs a

Duggan-Smith was lucky in every sense:of the word...
Trained as a naval cadet on the old H:-M.S Conway, in. -

_ preparation for a life career on the sea, his fateful decision to

jump ship in New Zealand just before the outtreak of

WWII (for the fove of a beautiful Kiwi, of course) could
have proved disastrous. Instead, it enaticd him to discover
his true vocation, which he was fortunate to be able to pur-
suc almost to the end of his life.

His erratic life on the ground was a rogue’s-gallery.of
characters, some so colorful as to be almost lurid, particular-
ly in the opportunistic environments of post-war Japan and
Southeast Asia in the 1970s, but was never dull. oO

_ Especially interesting is the way his political conscious- ...

ness develops ove: time, As a: young wartime pilot, iz is all
but non-existent; he is simply. one of many young men

“fighting the goud fight” in the. air against an enemy whose

evil is a given and partying at a furious pace whenever he’s
not in the air. At the end of his career, he acutely ob:

the agonizing destruction of Cambodia, a country he'h
come to love, during the Khmer Rouge takeover whe
dreadful “killing fields”. were beginning.to be sown.

prt serv

Friday, August 14, 1998 — North Shore News — 21

Despite it’s often sombre subjects, Don’t Tell My Mother,
is ultimately an exuberant book, the chronicle of a life lived
to the fullest.

Peter Duggan-Smith was one of those rare men who was
not only a great raconteur, he didn’t freeze up when he put
pen to paper, buc wrote with the sams lively charm he used
when telling a story over a pint. He lived his life by doing’ -
what he loved, taking the consequences and treating whatev-
er regrets he may have experienced with a sense of humor
and a sharp wit. If he’s run true to form in the after-lite, |<
he’s probably wangled the job of Chief Angelic Flight
Instructer to the Heavenly Host and made some changes to
the Standing Orders. Lo.

You can get a copy of Don’t Tell My Mother at The Book «
Company shup in Park Royal North 2 a

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