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Goshawk Squadron
Set during the height of World War I in January 1918, Goshawk Squadron follows the misfortunes of a British flight squadron on the Western Front. For Stanley Woolley, commanding officer of Goshawk Squadron, the romance of chivalry in the clouds is just a myth. The code he drums into his men is simple and savage: shoot the enemy in the back before he knows you're there. Even so, he believes the whole squadron will be dead within three months. A monumental work at the time of its original release, Booker-shortlisted Goshawk Squadron is now viewed as a classic in the mode of Catch 22. Wry, brutal, cynical and hilarious, the men of Robinson's squadron are themselves an embodiment of the maddening contradictions of war: as much a refined troop of British gentleman as they are a viscous band of brothers hell-bent on staying alive and winning the war.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Derek Robinson
91 books77 followersDerek Robinson is a British author best known for his military aviation novels full of black humour. He has also written several books on some of the more sordid events in the history of Bristol, his home town, as well as guides to rugby. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971 for his first novel, 'Goshawk Squadron.'
After attending Cotham Grammar School, Robinson served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter plotter, during his National Service. He has a History degree from Cambridge University, where he attended Downing College, has worked in advertising in the UK and the US and as a broadcaster on radio and television. He was a qualified rugby referee for over thirty years and is a life member of Bristol Society of Rugby Referees. He was married in 1964
After attending Cotham Grammar School, Robinson served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter plotter, during his National Service. He has a History degree from Cambridge University, where he attended Downing College, has worked in advertising in the UK and the US and as a broadcaster on radio and television. He was a qualified rugby referee for over thirty years and is a life member of Bristol Society of Rugby Referees. He was married in 1964
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
January 12, 2011
This is sort of a less-humorous World War I version of Catch-22. Robinson's Goshawk Squadron is very well done and brutally realistic, albeit with some rather flamboyantly over-the-top characters.
The dogfights are carefully drawn and help to immerse the reader in the thick of the action.
The action accurately follows the course of the war as it occurred in 1918, adding to the building urgency as a major German attack strikes deep into the Allied lines.
The only aspect that interfered with my reading was Robinson's penchant for constantly shifting points of view within a scene, including shifting to the POV of characters that had never been truly defined. However, his ability quickly to find the core of their hopes and fears without slowing the action mitigated that "problem."
Overall, Goshawk Squadron is clearly one of the seminal historical novels of the WW I aviation genre, well deserving of having been short listed for the Booker Prize back in the early '70s. I can't believe I hadn't discovered it decades ago! If you're looking for WW I aviation fiction, this book must be on your to-read list.
The dogfights are carefully drawn and help to immerse the reader in the thick of the action.
The action accurately follows the course of the war as it occurred in 1918, adding to the building urgency as a major German attack strikes deep into the Allied lines.
The only aspect that interfered with my reading was Robinson's penchant for constantly shifting points of view within a scene, including shifting to the POV of characters that had never been truly defined. However, his ability quickly to find the core of their hopes and fears without slowing the action mitigated that "problem."
Overall, Goshawk Squadron is clearly one of the seminal historical novels of the WW I aviation genre, well deserving of having been short listed for the Booker Prize back in the early '70s. I can't believe I hadn't discovered it decades ago! If you're looking for WW I aviation fiction, this book must be on your to-read list.
March 14, 2020
The cover promises a wholesome boys own adventure. Derek Robinson, in this booker nominated novel, instead delivers one of the most brutal bromides against the stupidity of World War I, I have ever read. As a bonus it also contains an account of the most raucous night out, I have ever read. The murder, albeit accidental, of the restaurant owner is now the new benchmark by which a night out gone wrong will forever more be measured. Also no one in this book is called Ginger.
September 22, 2012
Goshawk Squadron was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1971. It was criticised by some former RFC pilots who felt it denigrated the memories of those who fought the air war. Others praised it for showing the true nature of a war that was brutal mass slaughter and it was no different in the air to other services. Pilots were flying planes made of principally of wood, canvas and wire, and the engines were treated with castor oil to keep them lubricated, the fumes of which acted as a laxative that was countered by alcohol. Pilots often flew several missions a day traversing two sets of trenches where they were liable to be shot at from both sides, plus sustained anti-air barrages, to face superior planes. Tensions and fears were high amongst pilots, most of whom had only recently finished school, and they often let off steam in local villages. Robinson captures the true dark nature of war; it’s brutal realities. The tale is relatively straightforward, following the men’s exploits and relationships over a few months. The action sequences are excellent and the opening couple of chapters are amongst the best I’ve read in a while; the writing really alive on the page, laced with dark humour. It then settles down, becoming a little more mundane. Whilst some of the men are well drawn and distinctive, others are pretty indistinguishable and under-realised. And in Woolley he pushes the callous leader, who really believes he is doing the right thing by his men by trying to harden them to be ruthless, to its limits. Overall, an engaging, well written novel that shows war for what it really is.
October 29, 2019
Picked this up on a whim, largely based on the cover art and the tagline that it was shortlisted for the 1971 Booker Prize. Turns out it's the third book in the author's "Royal Flying Corps" Quartet -- the thrust of which seems to be to paint an anti-romantic fictional portrait of World War I air warfare. The book is more or less a series of scenes that take place late in 1918, rather than any kind of story with an arc and fully-developed characters or anything like that.
Instead, there is 23-year-old squadron commander Major Wooley, who has identified the utter pointlessness of the war and takes all measures to prepare his men to survive. Fueled by Guinness, he does his utmost to destroy any sense in them that war has rules or should be fair or sporting in some way. The men come and go in rapid succession, and there's a running dark gag about no one remembering names and who's who, since so many die within the first week of arriving from their ludicrously inadequate training.
The book can be roughly divided into portions following the men during their downtime (in which booze and sex feature prominently), training sessions with the Major, and air combat scenes. The latter are well drawn in that they give the modern reader a sense of how confusing, chaotic, and precarious it all must have been. I gather from skimming some reviews that there are some inaccuracies with regard to the planes, so anyone who cares about that kind of thing is on notice. I also gather that there are other novels that take the same dark approach to the subject matter, but are much better written, such as V. M. Yeates' "Winged Victory."
Instead, there is 23-year-old squadron commander Major Wooley, who has identified the utter pointlessness of the war and takes all measures to prepare his men to survive. Fueled by Guinness, he does his utmost to destroy any sense in them that war has rules or should be fair or sporting in some way. The men come and go in rapid succession, and there's a running dark gag about no one remembering names and who's who, since so many die within the first week of arriving from their ludicrously inadequate training.
The book can be roughly divided into portions following the men during their downtime (in which booze and sex feature prominently), training sessions with the Major, and air combat scenes. The latter are well drawn in that they give the modern reader a sense of how confusing, chaotic, and precarious it all must have been. I gather from skimming some reviews that there are some inaccuracies with regard to the planes, so anyone who cares about that kind of thing is on notice. I also gather that there are other novels that take the same dark approach to the subject matter, but are much better written, such as V. M. Yeates' "Winged Victory."
September 5, 2021
Recommended by a review of this neglected author in Slightly Foxed magazine I came across a 1971 Pan paperback copy in Richard Booth’s excellent shop at Hay. This was well worth th £2 outlay.
It’s a brutally frank and potentially bleak account of the Royal Flying Corps set in 1918 France.
Major Woolley is 23 and a veteran pilot whose job is to dispel the myth that flying in war is fun and in order to try and limit casualties among the conveyor belt of naive flyers presented to him treats everyone with brutal contempt.
The description and terror of flying over the front is brilliantly evoked as is the hilarious black humour of the squadron. In particular I recommend chapter six which is introduced at the end of chapter five by a pilot, Rogers, who is speaking to the adjutant, Woodruffe, about a proposed night out.
‘Woody,’ Rogers said, ‘is it all right with you if we all go over to St. Denis and cause a certain amount of devastation?’
‘That depends,’ the adjutant said. ‘Will it bring the name of the squadron into disrepute?’
‘Inevitably,’ Rogers said. ‘Inevitably and repeatedly.’
‘In that case I’d better come with you,’ Woodruffe said.
The resulting mayhem is a tour de force of comic writing tempered by the sadness that inevitably follows as the squadron goes to war.
It’s a brutally frank and potentially bleak account of the Royal Flying Corps set in 1918 France.
Major Woolley is 23 and a veteran pilot whose job is to dispel the myth that flying in war is fun and in order to try and limit casualties among the conveyor belt of naive flyers presented to him treats everyone with brutal contempt.
The description and terror of flying over the front is brilliantly evoked as is the hilarious black humour of the squadron. In particular I recommend chapter six which is introduced at the end of chapter five by a pilot, Rogers, who is speaking to the adjutant, Woodruffe, about a proposed night out.
‘Woody,’ Rogers said, ‘is it all right with you if we all go over to St. Denis and cause a certain amount of devastation?’
‘That depends,’ the adjutant said. ‘Will it bring the name of the squadron into disrepute?’
‘Inevitably,’ Rogers said. ‘Inevitably and repeatedly.’
‘In that case I’d better come with you,’ Woodruffe said.
The resulting mayhem is a tour de force of comic writing tempered by the sadness that inevitably follows as the squadron goes to war.
August 28, 2019
Every second you are in the air,' Woolley said, 'someone is trying to kill you. If he does it properly you will never know. You must look for him, because he's always there.' He stared at them, and his black, pouchy eyes were full of anger at their stupid humanitarianism. 'God damn it,' he said. 'you're murderers 'turned loose against murderers! Some will come at you head-on with an axe. But the ones that think, the good ones, the professionals, they hide behind a tree and stick you through the ribs from behind. They are up there now. They go up every day and murder nice chaps like you.' Woolley made nice chaps sound like a genetic defect.
"they'll all be dead in a year."
"That's an absurd way to think."
"They'll all be dead in six months, then."
"I don't see how you can possibly lead the squadron if that's what you really believe."
"I don't. I personally believe there won't be one of them alive by the end of April."
"Listen, I'll make you a bargain. I'll never tell the truth, if you'll never tell lies. [...] It'll show us the best side of each other."
"they'll all be dead in a year."
"That's an absurd way to think."
"They'll all be dead in six months, then."
"I don't see how you can possibly lead the squadron if that's what you really believe."
"I don't. I personally believe there won't be one of them alive by the end of April."
"Listen, I'll make you a bargain. I'll never tell the truth, if you'll never tell lies. [...] It'll show us the best side of each other."
February 19, 2023
Not long ago I read A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, where the main character was a bomber pilot during WWII. I was shocked by the brutality of war, and remember thinking it's good we are reminded of this. Goshawk Squadron does the same, but to an even higher degree. That it at the same time manages to make me laugh out loud at the many absurdities and the dry humor shows Robinson's genius. And the realization of the soldiers' age is truly chilling.
November 16, 2021
Amongst the dark humour, the battle descriptions, the seemingly pointless actions lies the most shocking aspect of this book - the age of the combatants. Poignant to be reading this over armistice day.
July 21, 2021
Another reviewer below (Walt Shiel) summed it up well, I think, when they described Goshawk Squadron as a 'less funny Catch 22'. The latter sets a high bar, and although Robinson takes more of an afficienado's view (cf. detail on flight manouvres and plane models), it still essentially makes the same point that war is a mug's game. However, to leave it there would be to do a good book down, and the roll-call approach manages to give a sense of the scale of this futility that lifts it above the solipcistic profundities of Heller or for that matter the war poets.
Robinson's writing is easy to warm to, and if there is a caricature edge to the human sketches (a sort of WWI Allo Allo scene with prostitues in a French cafe being a case in point), it is only in the way some of the best-loved sitcoms marry humour and pathos. From Goshawk Squadron's Belgian airfield we get commeraderie, deflated heroism, love stories (with nurses behind the French lines) and grief, with the unpredictable switchback more realistic of wartime. A miniature cricket bat lucky charm left by one of the casualties is but one of many poignant mementoes that become totemic of loss.
Robinson is one of the few early Booker shortlisted authors still alive at the time of review (July 2020) and he maintains a wonderful blog that explains his writing. It explains how he chose humour as it reflects his (much later, post-WWII) experiences of life in the services. This blog shows a writer grateful for his chance to write. After reading it I wanted to meet him and share a pint. Unlike some of his more po-faced contemporaries on the prize shortlist (admittedly including some excellent books), Robinson's writing takes one of the darkest episode and brings us light from above the cloudline, as well as the dark shade that is going to be required from so many personal and collective tragedies.
Let us not forget, but let us not just retreat into an 11am silence. Catch 22 is the classic example, but this short book makes the same point well. I found humour, fear and flickering hope in Goshawk Squadron.
Robinson's writing is easy to warm to, and if there is a caricature edge to the human sketches (a sort of WWI Allo Allo scene with prostitues in a French cafe being a case in point), it is only in the way some of the best-loved sitcoms marry humour and pathos. From Goshawk Squadron's Belgian airfield we get commeraderie, deflated heroism, love stories (with nurses behind the French lines) and grief, with the unpredictable switchback more realistic of wartime. A miniature cricket bat lucky charm left by one of the casualties is but one of many poignant mementoes that become totemic of loss.
Robinson is one of the few early Booker shortlisted authors still alive at the time of review (July 2020) and he maintains a wonderful blog that explains his writing. It explains how he chose humour as it reflects his (much later, post-WWII) experiences of life in the services. This blog shows a writer grateful for his chance to write. After reading it I wanted to meet him and share a pint. Unlike some of his more po-faced contemporaries on the prize shortlist (admittedly including some excellent books), Robinson's writing takes one of the darkest episode and brings us light from above the cloudline, as well as the dark shade that is going to be required from so many personal and collective tragedies.
Let us not forget, but let us not just retreat into an 11am silence. Catch 22 is the classic example, but this short book makes the same point well. I found humour, fear and flickering hope in Goshawk Squadron.
November 9, 2015
“Goshawk squadron is the last book of a trilogy” I would have liked to see this on the first page, better still on the cover rather than at the end of the book… Anyway, it is a good book on its own so I am not disappointed.
There are innumerable books on war, themed sub-themed or sprinkled with all sorts of other facets such as patriotism, glory, passion, love, hatred, tragic… But nothing I previously read has addressed the brutal pointlessness so bluntly.
There are innumerable books on war, themed sub-themed or sprinkled with all sorts of other facets such as patriotism, glory, passion, love, hatred, tragic… But nothing I previously read has addressed the brutal pointlessness so bluntly.
October 17, 2021
A Brilliant Insight
As the author states, the Biggles books were more than fiction, they describe a war which never happened. The reality was infinitely more squalid. Goshawk Squadron describes that war.
As the author states, the Biggles books were more than fiction, they describe a war which never happened. The reality was infinitely more squalid. Goshawk Squadron describes that war.
March 19, 2015
M*A*S*H meets Catch-22 in War I--but Sherman was right.
November 12, 2016
A parallel to Catch-22 it terms of finding a sort of dark humor in war, this book does a great job at working with your imagination to capture the experience of flying in WWI
January 18, 2017
An interesting read about pilots and the flimsy planes they flew in World War I. It was certainly a dangerous occupation and for most a very short career.
October 15, 2018
I'm writing this as we approach the centenary of the end of World War One. With the proper remembrance of those who gave their lives on both sides, it's worth reading Goshawk Squadron before talking of heroes.
I bought the book simply as part of a project to read all Booker Prize short-listed fiction. What to expect from the title, the cover, and one of those online sidebars that suggested I might like similar novels heroically titled 'Winged Victory' and 'The Company of Eagles'?
So this bleak, merciless tale, in which the CO trains his pilots to shoot the enemy in the back was quite a surprise. No wonder some veterans of the Royal Flying Corps were horrified after reading it. Biggles and derring-do it isn't.
It's hard to get away from that comparison in The Guardian and elsewhere of the book with Catch 22, or maybe better, for its savage, insolent wit as First World War version of M*A*S*H. And in its description of the flyers' riotous, drunken night at a local restaurant the humour is as wild as anything in Waugh or Kingsley Amis.
Yet it is not to be forgotten that the night ends in a man's death, and possibly a rape. For what is remarkable about Robinson's grim comedy is that he manages to combine it with vivid descriptions of aerial combat and its horrible, lurid details, engines failing, pilots pissing in their pants, watching colleagues burn.
The characters are differentiated only by a few telling lines of description when they first appear - sturdy Derbyshire farm lad Kimberley or Capt. Woodruffe who exceptionally "has the face of a man who pays bills on time and believes what the country tells him." The new recruits are bushy-tailed if not always bright, the veterans (ie 20 or over) cynical.
In another novel it would be a weakness; but these are youths, not yet fully developed personalities when thrown into the skies in flimsy kites with a high likelihood of death within three months.
I bought the book simply as part of a project to read all Booker Prize short-listed fiction. What to expect from the title, the cover, and one of those online sidebars that suggested I might like similar novels heroically titled 'Winged Victory' and 'The Company of Eagles'?
So this bleak, merciless tale, in which the CO trains his pilots to shoot the enemy in the back was quite a surprise. No wonder some veterans of the Royal Flying Corps were horrified after reading it. Biggles and derring-do it isn't.
It's hard to get away from that comparison in The Guardian and elsewhere of the book with Catch 22, or maybe better, for its savage, insolent wit as First World War version of M*A*S*H. And in its description of the flyers' riotous, drunken night at a local restaurant the humour is as wild as anything in Waugh or Kingsley Amis.
Yet it is not to be forgotten that the night ends in a man's death, and possibly a rape. For what is remarkable about Robinson's grim comedy is that he manages to combine it with vivid descriptions of aerial combat and its horrible, lurid details, engines failing, pilots pissing in their pants, watching colleagues burn.
The characters are differentiated only by a few telling lines of description when they first appear - sturdy Derbyshire farm lad Kimberley or Capt. Woodruffe who exceptionally "has the face of a man who pays bills on time and believes what the country tells him." The new recruits are bushy-tailed if not always bright, the veterans (ie 20 or over) cynical.
In another novel it would be a weakness; but these are youths, not yet fully developed personalities when thrown into the skies in flimsy kites with a high likelihood of death within three months.
May 3, 2022
“Richards’ father owned a length of Curzon Street, a chunk of Yorkshire, and the warm respect of all mankind. He had raised his son in a tradition of service and self-sacrifice, meaning command over others.” (p. 18) From here the narrative turns to truly grim humor.
This is a re-read, from about 15 years ago. I approached this reading with an overall impression of the trajectory of the plot and a couple of the main threads of it. The trajectory is laid out by the chapter headings, each chapter named after the 12 levels of wind force in the Beaufort scale, from the little activity of Light air to the tragedy of Hurricane. I noted this time around, having studied WWI during the centenary, that this story takes place from January 15, 1918, a relatively quiet time on the Western Front, till the start of Germany’s final major offensive, last week of March. The interest (especially in re-reading) is in how elements of their private and personal lives, their corporate lives (as a squadron) and the official (military) lives interact and shape decisions.
I don’t know how unique this is (maybe I just haven’t been paying attention or asking the same questions before) but this story strikes me as being not just about the brutality of war but about the way war brutalizes and dehumanized the people involved. (I don’t think that’s exactly what we usually mean by the brutality of war, but maybe it should become part of the idea). I would also note that much of the brutalizing (that is, making people brutish) is seen to occur before battle begins.
This is a re-read, from about 15 years ago. I approached this reading with an overall impression of the trajectory of the plot and a couple of the main threads of it. The trajectory is laid out by the chapter headings, each chapter named after the 12 levels of wind force in the Beaufort scale, from the little activity of Light air to the tragedy of Hurricane. I noted this time around, having studied WWI during the centenary, that this story takes place from January 15, 1918, a relatively quiet time on the Western Front, till the start of Germany’s final major offensive, last week of March. The interest (especially in re-reading) is in how elements of their private and personal lives, their corporate lives (as a squadron) and the official (military) lives interact and shape decisions.
I don’t know how unique this is (maybe I just haven’t been paying attention or asking the same questions before) but this story strikes me as being not just about the brutality of war but about the way war brutalizes and dehumanized the people involved. (I don’t think that’s exactly what we usually mean by the brutality of war, but maybe it should become part of the idea). I would also note that much of the brutalizing (that is, making people brutish) is seen to occur before battle begins.
November 7, 2022
I have a glancing knowledge of the Goshawk Squadron, but I has never been part of my more in-depth WWI history, so admittedly, much of the details of this little corner of WWI is obscure to me. That being said, this novel was not for me. I found there was not real redeeming qualities in any of the characters. I did not find at all interesting the minutiae detail of aviation fights of 1918. The dynamic and relationships between all of the characters felt very wooden. The writing was excellent. I guess that's why it was short-listed for the Booker?
Is it just me or do male and female writers approach WWI novels differently. I feel like male writers concentrate on this 'exclusive boys club' aspect of the war along with very detailed (often unnecessary) accounts of little aspects of the fighting. Whereas female writers tend to zoom out a bit so that some context is provided along with individual impressions of an event (but still allowing for interpersonal relationships.) Also, I am so done with this theme of "the male soldier would be perfectly fine and survive the war if he hadn't been distracted by a female. My copy compared this to the Catch-22 of WWI - just no. Once again, I feel like whoever wrote that blurb neither read this novel nor Catch-22. I'm also uncertain if this was a stand-alone novel or whether I was supposed to read something before it.
I'm sure there are many people who will enjoy reading this account of WWI. It is well-written so I guess it's worth picking up if you are looking for a novel about fighter pilots in WWI.
Is it just me or do male and female writers approach WWI novels differently. I feel like male writers concentrate on this 'exclusive boys club' aspect of the war along with very detailed (often unnecessary) accounts of little aspects of the fighting. Whereas female writers tend to zoom out a bit so that some context is provided along with individual impressions of an event (but still allowing for interpersonal relationships.) Also, I am so done with this theme of "the male soldier would be perfectly fine and survive the war if he hadn't been distracted by a female. My copy compared this to the Catch-22 of WWI - just no. Once again, I feel like whoever wrote that blurb neither read this novel nor Catch-22. I'm also uncertain if this was a stand-alone novel or whether I was supposed to read something before it.
I'm sure there are many people who will enjoy reading this account of WWI. It is well-written so I guess it's worth picking up if you are looking for a novel about fighter pilots in WWI.
January 4, 2019
I learned of this book via the fantastic 'By the Book' column featuring John Sandford (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/bo...), in which he drops the titles of a number of popcorny novels with which I was wholely unfamiliar. I took it as a great opportunity to expand my reading into new areas, and a World War I flying genre book was certainly a new one for me!
While I may not have enjoyed it quite as much as Sandford, who calls it a 'minor masterpiece', I absolutely found it to be captivating, the action scenes vivid and engrossing, and the lean characterizations to be hard hitting and likely to stay with me for some time. The book opens very strongly and really blasts you into the grim world of WWI aviation bootcamp. The middle seemed to drag a bit, or at least become a little less transcendant. However, by the end we are really feeling the pressure and the inevitable crush of history as the Germans advance, the British press on, and the men and women caught in the middle try to remember what it is to live life.
Overall, it's something different, it's full of black humor which is at times really incredible, and is well worth your time to experience something new.
While I may not have enjoyed it quite as much as Sandford, who calls it a 'minor masterpiece', I absolutely found it to be captivating, the action scenes vivid and engrossing, and the lean characterizations to be hard hitting and likely to stay with me for some time. The book opens very strongly and really blasts you into the grim world of WWI aviation bootcamp. The middle seemed to drag a bit, or at least become a little less transcendant. However, by the end we are really feeling the pressure and the inevitable crush of history as the Germans advance, the British press on, and the men and women caught in the middle try to remember what it is to live life.
Overall, it's something different, it's full of black humor which is at times really incredible, and is well worth your time to experience something new.
March 27, 2020
The Goshawk Squadron is a loose-knit, free-wheeling, out of control fraternity brother version of a British WW1 flying squadron. Their leader is anti-hero Wooley, who batters them with physically demanding training and unrelenting mental cruelty. With literally no redeeming qualities, Wooley implores them to be murderers rather than victims, instructs them that there are absolutely no rules of warfare in the sky, and prohibits use of the word “fair.” His only concern for his men seems to be to beat into them the requisite fury to have a chance to survive. Rudimentary, though harrowing, WW1 aerial combat comes to life through anecdotal passages that portray the experiences of squadron members. Reckless, sometimes lawless, behavior and booze-sated sophomoric banter paints authentic images of young men who deal in death and try to maintain their sanity when out of the cockpit. Hard-edged wit and humor in dialogue exchanges among squadron members cut seem perfectly harmonious with gritty life or death battle scenes.
Was this review helpful? I am an avid world war based fiction reader and author. You can read more of my takes at https://brodiecurtis.com/curtis-takes/.
Was this review helpful? I am an avid world war based fiction reader and author. You can read more of my takes at https://brodiecurtis.com/curtis-takes/.
January 29, 2018
“War is not sporting. War is not fair.”
These are some of the last lines in the Afterword of Derek Robinson’s novel Goshawk Squadron, yet they perfectly sum up the entire book. In the final year of World War I, the British sent young men into the skies in constructs of polished wood, stretched canvas, and piano wire. Loaded with fuel and equipped with guns, these biplanes were used for observation, attack, and defense. The Germans had planes, too, but they were often faster and better built. British squadrons lost and replaced men so quickly that surviving members and officers were often hard-pressed to keep the names straight.
This fictional account of one such squadron was a glimpse into history. The squadron’s commanding officer uses unorthodox and harsh tactics to prepare his men for battle. The men, not understanding why he is training them this way or what he is trying to teach them, resent him.
Goshawk Squadron was not a pleasant book, even though it provided a useful historical context. I am glad I read it, but I am also glad I’m finished.
These are some of the last lines in the Afterword of Derek Robinson’s novel Goshawk Squadron, yet they perfectly sum up the entire book. In the final year of World War I, the British sent young men into the skies in constructs of polished wood, stretched canvas, and piano wire. Loaded with fuel and equipped with guns, these biplanes were used for observation, attack, and defense. The Germans had planes, too, but they were often faster and better built. British squadrons lost and replaced men so quickly that surviving members and officers were often hard-pressed to keep the names straight.
This fictional account of one such squadron was a glimpse into history. The squadron’s commanding officer uses unorthodox and harsh tactics to prepare his men for battle. The men, not understanding why he is training them this way or what he is trying to teach them, resent him.
Goshawk Squadron was not a pleasant book, even though it provided a useful historical context. I am glad I read it, but I am also glad I’m finished.
July 26, 2023
One of the finest novels you'll read on the bloody absurdity that takes hold in war. Hard to read without thinking of Catch 22, but this has the humour (both dark and laugh out loud) without the whimsy, leaves moralising to the reader and has a tighter focus on the core participants - I prefer it. Robinson is also a master of the jarring image, and his whiplash juxtapositions of pastoral and barbarous are stunning. He is a masterclass for the current slew of creative writing professors writing debut novels without being able to deploy a simile effectively. The novel spirals ever tighter in building chaos to its confusion, but Robinson never loses control of the narrative. Captain Whoolley as protagonist is perfect as the only man who truly grasps the reality of the situation.
February 19, 2023
It's 1918 and high jinks in the mess and death in the skies continue as World War 1 enters its final year. Not that the prospect of peace means much to the pilots and crews of Goshawk Squadron as the strain and dangers of aerial warfare above the boiling trenches of northern France take their toll. In this, the third in the series of WW1 Royal Flying Corps stories, the author allows us deeper into the minds of his characters, and the effect their crazy, perilous life has on their mental wellbeing.
A shocking indictment of war, a story of real people, real terror, and real death at 15,000 feet. Written with humour, compassion and grim reality, Robinson has scored highly again.
A shocking indictment of war, a story of real people, real terror, and real death at 15,000 feet. Written with humour, compassion and grim reality, Robinson has scored highly again.
August 21, 2019
In the tradition of antiwar books, Robinson presents the awful truth of what it's like to be in a 'kill or be killed' situation. He courageously challenges the false narrative so often presented in film and print about he 'knights of the air,' the valiant and chivalrous warriors who fought bravely and honorably, instead presenting a picture akin the "Paths of Glory," "all Quiet on the Western Front," and "The Red Badge of Courage," along with Kubrick's "Apocalypse Now."
March 19, 2024
A squadron of World War I aviators are followed for a few weeks in early 1918 France. Their commanding officer, Major Stanley Woolley, embittered, sarcastic, and all of 23 years old seems the model for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb. Unloved, but determined to pound in as much training as possible and to pound out as much romantic nonsense as possible, Woolley understands that the intent of war is to kill as many of the enemy as possible. Darkly humorous.
August 14, 2017
It's a surprisingly complex novel about WWI airmen. The author was a pilot, and displays what feels like an intimate knowledge of what that life was like. These characters exhibit the blithe gallows humor evocative of the upper classes many of the pilots hailed from, and they do some pretty despicable things. The book has a MASH-like attitude towards the futility and hopelessness of the war.
November 5, 2018
A story which is both a tragedy and a comedy, Goshawk Squadron describes the adventures of a Royal Flying Corps unit in World War I France. Robinson draws amazing pictures of both the quirkiness of the British aviators and the hell they go through as they learn their trade: not just shooting down enemy planes or destroying their materiel on the ground, but killing the men up close and personal.
May 12, 2019
The detachment and black humor are savage, as is the aerial warfare. Major Wooley ranks with the classic antiheroes. In an afterward, the author quotes an RFC pilot that the WWI pilot's objective "was to sneak in unobserved close behind his opponent and then shoot him in the back." Extra half star for a debut novel.
November 26, 2018
I'd call it "Catch 22 with a vicious edge."
Kill or be killed was the mantra CO Woolley tried to drum into the heads of his young pilots.
As a fictional book, I found it to be quite believable as the way war actually is rather than as war is portrayed.
Well worth the read.
Kill or be killed was the mantra CO Woolley tried to drum into the heads of his young pilots.
As a fictional book, I found it to be quite believable as the way war actually is rather than as war is portrayed.
Well worth the read.
June 26, 2019
What a bleak book. I read it obsessively with a horrible fascination at the depiction of the response of young men fighting in the air in WW1, under trained with inadequate equipment and little strategy.
October 19, 2023
The detailed development of characters from a bygone era is fascinating. This book is an homage for a class of military leaders that was effectively wiped out. I did not find the book overly dark and the humour is truly amusing.
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