The Raid

William Earl Johns (1893-1968), better known as Capt. W.E. Johns, was a British author noted for his juvenile fiction featuring stories about pilots and flying. Johns first career was as a sanitary inspector but he soon gave it up to enlist in the army at the beginning of World War I. He saw action during the Gallipoli Campaign and also served garrison duty in Egypt. Afterwards he applied to serve in the Royal Flying Corps. He was posted to a flying school in England where he trained pilots. In the 1930s he began to write fiction basing his stories on his flying experience. All told he wrote over 150 novels and short stories for young boys and girls. (wejohns.com)