On the 12th of August 1940, my father, Bertram James Thomas, was shot down by the Italians in what was then British Somaliland in East Africa. It was a sideshow in World War II, but a turning point in my father’s life. He nursed his aircraft back to a British base, but he was severely wounded and spent a year convalescing in India before flying again. He never returned to combat operations. He was just 25. This site is about the ten years leading up to that day.