In October 1939, barely a month after World War II erupted in Europe, Ron Pottinger was conscripted into the British Army as a rifleman in the Royal Fusiliers. A year later, amidst pilot shortages due to losses during the Battle of Britain, he transferred to the Royal Air Force, where he began flying the 7.5-ton Hawker Typhoon fighter. He flew dozens of dangerous ground-attack missions over occupied Europe through bad weather, heavy flak, and enemy fighters before being shot down in early 1945 and ending the war in a German prisoner of war camp.