Birth of Thunder

Birth of Thunder is a 1963 novel written by Robin Cranford. It is a story of an young airman Carraday who is basically an introvert and shy unlike the garrulous ones that you find in the services. He is the butt of jokes in his regiment. He flies a sortie with his team over enemy territory, but unfortunately his plane gets hit, he has to eject into enemy territory in Yugoslavia. He gets captured by a friendly enemy force of locals who are fighting the Germans themselves, a ragtag bunch of brave soldiers with barely fighting experience but brave nevertheless. He gets drawn to a young soldier Jelena and then trouble starts for him all over again. But first he gets some hits against enemies so Carraday becomes strongly confident fighter. How they escape then forms part of the rest of the story.

The narrative by Robin Cranford is absolutely brilliant. I tried to Wiki on Robin, but could find no entry whatsoever anywhere, which is strange, unless this is his pseudonym. The book cover says he was born in South Africa in 1923 and has flown with the South African Air Force