The
following history of the poem is from www.skygod.com:
During the dark days of the Battle of Britain, hundreds of Americans
crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air
Force. Knowingly breaking the law, but with the tacit approval of
the then still officially neutral United States Government, they volunteered
to fight Hitler's Germany.
John
Gillespie Magee, Jr., was one such American. Born in Shanghai, China,
in 1922, Magee was just 18 years old when he entered flight training.
Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed
No 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England,
on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.
Flying
fighter sweeps over France and air defence over England against the
German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer. At the time,
German bombers were crossing the English Channel with great regularity
to attack Britain's cities and factories. Although the dark days of
the Battle of Britain were over, the Luftwaffe was still on the job
of keeping up the pressure on British industry and the country.
On
September 3, 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight
in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward,
he was struck with the inspiration of a poem "To touch the
face of God."
Once
back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented,
"I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000
feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter,
he jotted down his poem, "High Flight."
Just
three months later, on December 11, 1941 (and only three days after
the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr.,
was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford
Trainer from Cranwell Airfield while over Roxholm, England. The two
planes were flying in the clouds and neither saw the other. He was
just 19 years old.
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