Newly promoted Lieutenant Commander John Hunt returns to flying duties after his accident in the Mediterranean. Along with his friend Freddie St John Stevens, he is tasked to evaluate two new American fighters that the Fleet Air Arm are desperate to acquire. Once back in England he is appointed to be the Commanding Officer of 1854 Hellcat Squadron which is forming up in Northern Ireland. Once operational, they take part in Operation Tungsten, the FAA attack on the Tirpitz. Meanwhile his wife who is flying for the ATA gets lost in bad weather and ends up in enemy occupied France but manages to escape by sailing a twelve-foot dinghy back across the English Channel.
John's squadron then embarks in a carrier for the Far East and become part of the newly forming British Pacific Fleet. The squadron are in the thick of it, bombing oil refineries and enemy airfields as well as coping with the dreaded Kamikaze attacks. Some respite is gained in Australia which is the Fleet's support base but eventually they are fighting off the coast of mainland Japan. The war ends abruptly with the dropping of two atomic bombs and finally John's war is over.
Based on true events and in part on the career of the author's father, this is the story of the most powerful fleet the Royal Navy has ever put into battle with the greatest amount of naval air power ever assembled. It also the story of a Fleet that has almost completely been lost to the mists of time.