A brilliant book I have not seen mentioned anywhere is ' Flying Under Two Flags ' by Gordon Levett.
He was a R.A.F. Spitfire pilot during WW2, then joined in with the birth of the Israeli Air Force using any aircraft they could get hold of; he describes not only what it was really like in London to be a less-than-wealthy family under the 'Blitz', also very hairy piloting in transport a/c just after the war ( forget which type ) carrying spares out of Europe under 'suspect' customs regs', and the very dodgy reliability of these aircraft, especially engines - there were a fair few nasty accidents.
Ironically, their flight-line consisted of Spitfires & Me109's* parked alongside ! They did well, and I hope Mr. Levett is around to read this.
* Correct as opposed to the earlier Bf 109. DZ