Friday, January 4, 2008
Special Air Police
| Later stories told of Biggles' adventures after the war, as a charter pilot of an unidentified amphibian (often illustrated on covers, anachronistically, as either a Supermarine Walrus or Supermarine Sea Otter), his return to service in World War II (initially with a Supermarine S6B type machine in the Baltic) and then as Commanding Officer of 666 Squadron, RAF, a Special Duties squadron sent around the world on specific assignments. Several collections of stories detailed further adventures in peacetime; others filled in his equally adventurous childhood in India and the story of how he came to join the RFC, flying with New Zealand observer Mark Way in an FE2 before he converted to scouts. Biggles' first post-war action saw him in the African desert with new twin-engined types (possibly Bristol Brigand and de Havilland Hornet). Biggles has a small team of friends including his cousin Algy (the Hon. Algernon Lacey), Ginger (Hebblethwaite) and Bertie (Lord Bertie Lissie), who share many of his adventures as pilots in the Special Air Police which they form after World War II, flying Auster and Percival types, under the command of Air Commodore Raymond, who is at this time an Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard. Biggles' greatest opponent is the German spy officer Erich von Stalhein. They first meet when Biggles acts as a spy in the Middle East, where Biggles has some narrow escapes. Von Stalhein returns as an adversary in numerous other adventures. Following World War II, von Stalhein enters the services of the Communist bloc, until he gets imprisoned on the isle of Sakhalin, from where Biggles helps him escape (in Biggles buries a Hatchet, 1958). After this, Stalhein and Biggles are friends. Johns continued writing Biggles short stories and novels up until his death in 1968; in all, nearly 100 Biggles books were published. |
