This book is not your conventional wartime memoir, but rather of collection of vignettes from the author's stint as a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during World War II.

Philpotts hailed from St. John, New Brunswick, where he enlisted in the RCAF in 1940. Within a year, he successfully passed his flight training and was shipped over to the UK, where he flew combat with one of the most famous fighter wings in the Royal Air Force (RAF), commanded by the famous legless ace, Douglas Bader. Philpotts flew the famous Supermarine Spitfire on numerous fighter sweeps over Occupied France during 1941, being credited with shooting down 2 Messerschmitt 109s in aerial combat.

Later after completing his combat tour, Phlipotts was assigned to an Operational Training Unit (OTU) as a flight instructor. An OTU was a kind of "finishing school" in the RAF for any neophyte fighter pilot who would then be posted to his first combat unit. He shares with the reader a lot of what his life with an OTU in Wales was like, which included serving as an instructor for a pilot who would go on to become Canada's top World War II fighter ace, George Beurling.

Once completing his stint as an instructor, Philpotts volunteered to be a reconnaissance-intelligence pilot with a Spitfire PR (photo reconnaissance) unit on the Mediterranean island of Malta in late 1942. He flew numerous deep penetration missions (mostly high altitude) over enemy territory in Sicily and Italy. Later, Philpotts would be posted back to Canada, where he completed his RCAF service engaged in aerial photographic surveying of various parts of Canada, as well as flying different types of military aircraft (fighters, bombers, and transport planes).

All in all, it's a nice book with a scattering of photographs from Philpott's personal photograph collection.

Memoirs of World War II was begun by Philpotts, but completed by his wife Edna after his death.