Spitfire Pilot

The biography of decorated RAAF fighter pilot Lou Spence in World Ward II and the Korean War, a story of bravery, leadership and love.

Author John Spence draws on his father’s wartime diaries, which he addressed to his young wife back in Perth. During World War II, Lou Spence flew with No. 3 Squadron against Rommel’s forces in North Africa, then commanded 452 Squadron flying Spitfires defending Australia against the Japanese. A courageous pilot, he went on to lead the RAAF 77 Squadron of Mustangs in the Korean War.

A replica of Lou Spence’s Spitfire is in the Darwin Aviation Museum.

The author John Spence FRS, now Snell Professor of Physics at Arizona State University and the author of Lightspeed (Oxford University Press 2019, ISBN 9780198841968), was four years old when his father Wing Commander Lou Spence, DFC and bar, Legion of Merit, was killed in Korea in 1950 at the age of 33.