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The "taking a break from war" theme reminded me of this extract from McScotch's "Fighter Pilot" which takes place between Christmas Day 1917 and the New Year:
We emerged from the bitterly cold cloud into a world of glittering white iciness. The sun was shining brilliantly and a glistening expanse of white hills of powdered snow appeared before us as a newly created world. The reflected light from the clouds was blinding, and as the surfaces of the 'hummocks' and slopes were clearly defined, the silhouettes of our machines showed up with almost perfect definition, each one surrounded by a circular halo of rainbow colours.
... It was indeed an entrancing world in which our S.E.s were suspended, and very soon the rest of us realised that it had cast a spell over Mick [Mannock]. The wild loneliness had roused his boyish spirits. There were no other machines in sight, the world was ours, and Mick 'wagged' his wings once, asking us to take up our wing-tip-to-wing-tip formation and, without giving the second 'waggle' that would have signified the presence of an enemy, dived slowly towards the clouds.
He flattened out just above them and began contour-chasing among the steep feathery mountains and valleys, round one peak, down the slopes into a hollow, zooming up to avoid the next mountain, occassionally dashing into an overhanging precipice of freezing cold, billowing cloud, all the time with the silent rainbow spectres following us or preceding us as we turned and twisted over the arctic expanse.
... we all entered into the spirit of the chase, forgetting the war in our enjoyment.
... When we landed his face was beaming with joy. Whether at work, play or paying compliments to the fair sex, the whole of his vital enthusiasm was directed towards the immediate object. Our entrancing flight in the solitude and beauty of the upper air had stirred him, as it had thrilled us.
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