I think, it was the only way I could really do something for the war effort, because I would have been useless in the infantry or in the Commandos or something like that, and in Bomber Command, you know. And I used to have long talks with Ossy [Oswald] Morris the cameraman, who was a Lancaster pilot, twice decorated, DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross], and used to fly Churchill after the war. And I said, 'You know, Ossy, how you flew these Lancasters… because I had to be by myself, and if anything went wrong, it was... I had to cope with the plane, so I couldn't blame anybody. And there also was this fantastic feeling because you and that plane became one, really, because, you know, whatever control you... the plane reacted to it and it wasn't like a bomber where, you know, everything had to be careful and slowly done, and so on.

So the fighter pilot – the flying fighters – did appeal to me, except the first time I remember I was shot at over France, and I knew everybody was shooting at me, because I was alone, flying! I didn't like it very much, you know, because you remember when you did skeet shooting or pheasant shooting, and here I am sitting like a duck, you know, with everybody, very effective flak sometimes, shooting at you. But basically, flying in fighters and the most powerful, certainly at that time, was something I liked very much.