A Song of Wings

A Song of Wings : Lt. Indra Lal Roy, DFC

Anil Warner 

The Western Front, 1917.  Where the life expectancy of a fighter pilot is just three weeks.

Flying with 56 Squadron, Indian aviator Lt. Indra Lal Roy must master the art of aerial combat as he faces the crack German fliers of The Flying Circus.   

The story also encompasses the failed Ghadar Mutiny and the last true cavalry charge -- the Jodhpur Lancers at Haifa.  It throws light on the German gunrunning plan to ship 4,000 surplus American rifles to Punjabi revolutionaries, and touches upon Aurobindo Ghose's bombing campaign in Calcutta.

In the desperate dogfights in the skies over France, Roy proves himself to be among the best.  And he remains, to this day, India's highest scoring fighter ace.

It is 1917, and Indra Lal Roy is going to war.  Brought up and schooled in England, he is expected to fight for king and country.  Yet on the other side of the world, in the homeland he scarcely knows, Indian nationalists are fighting against the British. 

As World War I rages, the nineteen year 

old scores 10 aerial victories - and faces conflicting loyalties, racial prejudice, temperamental aircraft and the murderous skills of Germany's best fliers.  It is 1917 and in the perilous skies over the Western Front, Roy comes of age and flies to his destiny.