I became interested in the air campaigns of WW2 only recently, after (re)discovering a family member's service as B-17 bomber pilot. Having fought in combat mys

I became interested in the air campaigns of WW2 only recently, after (re)discovering a family member's service as B-17 bomber pilot. Having fought in combat myself, there's one story from the Battle of Britain which made me immediately grok the intensity of the battle and the tremendous strain under which the RAF pilots continually fought the numerically-superior Luftwaffe: Returning to base from fending off an attack, one fighter pilot was able to land his plane, but did not taxi off the runway. The ground and medical crews rushed out to his plane, recognizing the symptoms of a pilot who must have been grievously injured in the sky. Upon climbing the wing of the fighter and opening the canopy, the medics discovered that the pilot had fallen asleep at the controls immediately after landing his plane, but was otherwise uninjured. There's a tacit component of this story which will be difficult for someone to understand who hasn't themselves been in combat. There is simply no proxy for warfare and this is nothing like playing a sport or running or whatever until you cannot. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that to fall asleep so readily in those conditions -- especially as a healthy young fighter pilot -- truly speaks to the intensity of the combat that happened in the defense of Great Britain (and the tenacity of her pilots).