summary of Battle of Athens written by Roald Dahl
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Summary
9/14/20150 Comments
Going Solo is an action-packed story where young Roald Dahl becomes a pilot in war. The story starts off on Roald's voyage to Dar Es Salaam for his work. He is currently working for Shell Oil. Aboard the SS Mantola, Roald meets some pretty dotty people. Major Griffiths and his wife, U.N. Savory, and Miss Trefussis are all dotty. Once Roald reaches Dar Es Salaam, he stays with a couple other Shell workers in a big house. Here he meets his "boy" Mdisho, Piggy the cook, and Salimu the "shamba" or gardener. One day Roald saw a black mamba slithering toward Salimu in the garden. Roald quickly alerted him and Salimu was able to kill the mamba and to not get hurt while doing it. Next, Roald went on a safari and stayed at the house of Robert Sanford. Here he witnessed the cook's wife being picked up and carried by a lion and released unharmed. Roald then went to have a drink with Fuller and saw a green mamba slither silently into his house. He quickly told Fuller and Fuller called the well-known snake man. The snake man was able to get the snake safely out of the house, but not before the snake had bitten the dog. These events may sound crazy, but not nearly as crazy as what happens shortly after.
Everyone in Dar Es Salaam knew they were on the verge of war. Roald was ordered to leave his job and become a temporary army officer. He was given a platoon and ordered to not let any Germans escape from Dar Es Salaam. He and his platoon were able to accomplish this task, but had to shoot one defiant man. While Roald was away, Mdisho decided that he was going to help the war effort, too. He hastily grabbed Roald's precious sword and ran through the forest to a wealthy German's home. Showing no mercy, Mdisho stormed in, killed the German with one blow of the sword, and ran home very proud of what he had just done. Roald was shocked at what Mdisho had done, but knew it was just his culture in him. Roald announced that he was going to be a pilot in the war and gave the sword to Mdisho. Next, Roald journeyed to Nairobi to enlist and train for combat. He trained hard on a Tiger Moth for 8 weeks and then was transported to Iraq for 6 months of more training. After all of this training, he was finally ready to head into the fierce war. He was assigned to 80 squadron and told he had to fly a Gladiator, but he had never flown a Gladiator before. Unprepared, he flew to join his squadron and ended up crashing and badly injuring himself. Roald was taken to a hospital where he met Mary Welland, his caring nurse. He stayed for 4 months and then stayed for 4 weeks at the Peel's house. When he was all better he had to fly a Hurricane to reunite with his squadron who was now in Greece. When he arrived, he was struck with the devastating news that there was only 14 planes and pilots left in all of Greece. Roald met his tent-mate David Coke and he told Roald what to expect in the next day's battles. Roald succeeded in many battles and stayed alive. On April 20th, the Battle of Athens occurred. After the Battle of Athens, there were only 7 pilots and planes left. Chances were not looking good for survival and defeating the Germans.
After a raid of the camp, all pilots were ordered to move to a secret landing field up the coast or else they would all be wiped out. There they were met by the Air Commodore. Roald stepped forward and flew back to the camp with a special package to deliver. When Germans found their secret field, Roald and David were smart enough to know when to get out, and were two of the few to make it out alive. The remaining 5 pilots were put into a truck and driven to Alexandria for further orders. They were ordered to assemble in Haifa to protect the navy. They fought tough battles against the Vichy French. Roald was ordered to fly over and observe a secret landing field and was met by a group of Jewish refugees. They had an interesting conversation of not understanding each other's problems. Roald started getting sever headaches and was sent home into his mother's waiting arms.
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