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Tiger Over The Trenches

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Tiger Over the Trenches

29/03/2018

BBC Radio Wales - Tiger Over The Trenches

On the centenary of the founding of the RAF, the story of Welsh WWI flying ace Ira Jones.

The story of Ira Jones, a farm boy from Carmarthenshire who became one of the most deadly fighter pilots of WWI, for the centenary of the founding of the RAF in April 1918.

On the centenary of the founding of the RAF in April 1918, the story of Ira Jones from Carmarthenshire, one of the most deadly flying aces of the First World War. Jones was the illegitimate son of a farmer's daughter, and rose through the ranks of the newly- formed air service to become a fighter pilot, where he achieved 37 victories in the space of three months. 

He flew with the famous No.74 'Tiger' Squadron above the Western Front, and by the end of the war had been highly decorated for his feats of bravery - one of which included joining a formation of German planes and flying with them unseen before launching an attack.

Tiger Over the Trenches tells Jones's story and looks at the early days of aerial combat at a time when flying itself was still in its infancy.

Pictures are courtesy of 74 Tiger Squadron Association archive.

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