I have just re-read 101 Nights by Australian Ray Ollis, a novel based on his experiences flying with 101 Squadron on special ops in Lancasters. Out of print, but SH copies available on Amazon. Written in the early fifties it still had the immediacy of recent memory, warts and all.
By the bye, Goodbye Mickey Mouse was written by Len Deighton.
I can still re-read Sagittarius Rising by CD Lewis & Winged Victory by VM Yeates and, as previously mentioned, Fate Is the Hunter by Ernest K Gann is the best book there is about the early days of civil aviation.
Nobody, I think, has mentioned The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman about the events that led up to WW1. Lyn McDonald is the master of WWI narrative history, mostly gleaned from interviews of old soldiers during the 60's & 70's.
JG Masters follow up to Bugles & a Tiger - already mentioned and unmissable as an education into fighting the Pushtuns in Waziristan - is The Road to Mandalay. This is his story about fighting with the Chindits in Burma. Also, sadly out of print but, again, available over the internet.