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There are many ways that warriors have dealt with the immense stress of combat through the ages. S.P. MacKenzie has dug deeply and thoroughly into the accounts of World War II airmen to paint a kaleidoscopic portrait of their unique coping mechanisms. This is more than just a book about war in the air, it is a lively narrative about spiritual and psychological methods to deal with omnipresent danger and death. With the increasing lethality of future high-technology battlefields, such behaviors can be expected to persist, and might indeed be necessary. - Conrad C. Crane, author of American Airpower Strategy in World War II:Bombs, Cities, Civilians, and Oil Allied airmen in World War II fully understood that they were on the razor's edge in all air operations, facing extreme peril, high attrition, and the haunting sense that they might not return safely to base. This widely shared angst spawned every sort of superstition, talisman, good luck charm, and ritual, all aimed at assuring personal and crew survival. S. P. Mackenzie in Flying Against Fate chronicles this wartime phenomenon in compelling detail. His exhaustive research sheds new light on how airmen contended with the uncertain fate that awaited them on every sortie. - Von Hardesty, coauthor of Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II

There are many ways that warriors have dealt with the immense stress of combat through the ages. S.P. MacKenzie has dug deeply and thoroughly into the accounts of World War II airmen to paint a kaleidoscopic portrait of their unique coping mechanisms. This is more than just a book about war in the air, it is a lively narrative about spiritual and psychological methods to deal with omnipresent danger and death. With the increasing lethality of future high-technology battlefields, such behaviors can be expected to persist, and might indeed be necessary."""" - Conrad C. Crane, author of American Airpower Strategy in World War II:Bombs, Cities, Civilians, and Oil """"Allied airmen in World War II fully understood that they were on the """"razor’s edge” in all air operations, facing extreme peril, high attrition, and the haunting sense that they might not return safely to base. This widely shared angst spawned every sort of superstition, talisman, good luck charm, and ritual, all aimed at assuring personal and crew survival. S. P. Mackenzie in Flying Against Fate chronicles this wartime phenomenon in compelling detail. His exhaustive research sheds new light on how airmen contended with the uncertain fate that awaited them on every sortie."""" - Von Hardesty, coauthor of Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II

There are many ways that warriors have dealt with the immense stress of combat through the ages. S.P. MacKenzie has dug deeply and thoroughly into the accounts of World War II airmen to paint a kaleidoscopic portrait of their unique coping mechanisms. This is more than just a book about war in the air, it is a lively narrative about spiritual and psychological methods to deal with omnipresent danger and death. With the increasing lethality of future high-technology battlefields, such behaviors can be expected to persist, and might indeed be necessary. --Conrad C. Crane, author of American Airpower Strategy in World War II: Bombs, Cities, Civilians, and Oil Allied airmen in World War II fully understood that they were on the razor's edge in all air operations, facing extreme peril, high attrition, and the haunting sense that they might not return safely to base. This widely shared angst spawned every sort of superstition, talisman, good luck charm, and ritual, all aimed at assuring personal and crew survival. S. P. Mackenzie in Flying Against Fate chronicles this wartime phenomenon in compelling detail. His exhaustive research sheds new light on how airmen contended with the uncertain fate that awaited them on every sortie. --Von Hardesty, coauthor of Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II

Author Information

S. P. MacKenzie is Caroline McKissick Dial Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. His many books include The Battle of Britain on Screen: “The Few” in British Film and Television Drama, The Colditz Myth: British and Commonwealth Prisoners of War in Nazi Germany, and The Second World War in Europe.

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