Rejected by the RCAF for lack of education, George Frederick "Buzz" Beurling sailed to England, enlisted in the RAF, and talked his way onto a ship bound for Malta. He arrived on 9 June 1942 and proceeded to tear the Axis air forces apart. Flying a Spitfire Mk Vc, Beurling mastered deflection shooting to a degree that terrified his opponents—he fired only inside 250 yards, and he meant it. In fourteen days over the beleaguered island, he claimed 27 Axis aircraft. On 27 July 1942, he shot down Italian ace Capitano Furio Niclot Doglio and forced Sergente Faliero Gelli to crash-land; Doglio's wingman, Ennio Tarantola, escaped. Wounded by shrapnel, dysentery-ridden, and always insubordinate, Beurling was a terrible soldier and a lethal predator. By war's end he held 31 confirmed victories, the highest score of any Canadian pilot.