An Air Fighters Scrapbook...

Ira Jones

I found a tatty old copy of this last year in a junkshop.
Moving first hand account of the bravest of men.
Have just sent it off to very special young person.

Jones was once quoted as saying: "It is wonderful how cheered a pilot becomes after he shoots down his first machine; his morale increases by at least 100 percent."^[9]
"My habit of attacking Huns dangling from their parachutes led to many arguments in the mess. Some officers, of the Eton and Sandhurst type, thought it was 'unsportsmanlike' to do it. Never having been to a public school, I was unhampered by such considerations of form. I just pointed out that there was a bloody war on, and that I intended to avenge my pals."^[10]
Vic Hand served as an armourer under Jones' command at 53 OTU in 1941 and 1942, and recalls: “Taffy designed an unofficial badge for 53 OTU by adding wings to the tiger head of his 74 Squadron, but I cannot recall the motto. Maybe it was in Welsh. He had a habit of raising his drinking arm to the horizontal when toasting 'One f-f-for the T-t-tiger' in his unfortunate but endearing stutter.