Spitfire on Fairway: And Other Unexpected Hazards of Golf in Wartime - Softcover

Sport, we might assume, is one of the first casualties of war, and a sport as peaceful and civilized as golf perhaps more than most. But, as this book shows, golf has played a not-insignificant part in certain wars. It also highlights an extraordinary determination by certain human beings to persevere with their game of golf even in the face of the most adverse wartime conditions is both amazing and often hilarious. Here then, is the story of a World War II Spitfire pilot managing to land his stricken plane on a Scottish golf course fairway having recognized its topography from laying pre-war rounds there. There is golf in the Nile Valley in Egypt during the Desert War, with camels wandering across the fairway as the golfers tee off. And in war-torn Afghanistan the utter devastation of the country's infrastructure does not prevent its guerrilla fighters from setting out with a few ancient clubs and the obligatory Kalashnikov on their back to hack a round through pulverized scrub and bomb site. "Golf in Wartime" is illustrated from the author's own photographic collection with rare period images of golf during various wars around the world, throughout the whole of the 20th century.