"No Trouble At All."

A "Flying Officer X" story that depicts the atmosphere in an Air Force station, as pilots gather in the mess ante-room awaiting the return of remaining planes.

The narrator converses with the W.A.A.F. receptionist and with various pilots, including that of "K for Kitty" (in which the dangerous landing of that plane, resulting in its destruction, is recounted in similar terms in both tales).

An article in the Australian Women's Weekly (Worth Reporting, Graves in Holland, August 28, 1948, p. 18) prints a letter from the mother of Flying Officer Geoff Heard, in which her son is identified as 'the pilot who figures prominently in the stories of Flying-Officer X. "No Trouble At All" and "K is for Kitty"'. The article further reports that Heard's parents met Bates several times while visiting England and Bates's autobiography confirms this (The World in Ripeness, pp. 377-380).

A section of the story was also published in the Icelandic press with the title 'Back From a Raid.'

Published in:

• The Greatest People in the World and Other Stories (1942)
• The Reykjavík Daily Post (September 22, 1942, p.3)
• There's Something in the Air (1943)
• Something in the Air (1944)
• The Stories of Flying Officer 'X' (1952)
• Short Stories from the Second World War (1982)
• Great World War II Stories (1989)
• The Complete Stories of Flying Officer 'X' (Bloomsbury ebook, 2018)