WWI Aviation Books?

Thanks Al – I’ll add “French Aircraft of the First World War” to my ‘wish-list’ although at $125 it’s likely to be there for a long time 😮

Roger Smith.

WW I books

“Observer” by Insall, and “Air defence of Great Britain 1914 -1918” by Cheeseman & Cole are both excellent. If anyone is interested, PM me for further details. At Brooklands we hold many books written about WWI…..

Two more WW I-Aviation books I recommend:

Harleyford’s “Marine Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War” by Nowarra and others.

“Naval Aviation in the First World War (Its Impact and Influence)”, a historical survey of Naval Aviation in WW I by R.D. Layman (Caxton Editions, 1996). A very good read…

Al

Another book of the “Flying Machines Press” range I would recommend is “Austro-Hungarian Army Aircraft of World War One” by Grosz/Haddow/Schiemer.

This massive work is full of pictures and drawings in 1/72 and 1/48 scale.

A rather “esoteric” subject and not cheap…but worth the money.

See attached photos.

Al

I have lamented before of the lack of written material (in English) about French aircraft.

There is a comprehensive work on the subject called “French Aircraft of the First World War” by Dr. James J. Davilla and Artur M. Soltan, published by Flying Machines Press in 2002.

See this website:
http://www.flying-machines.com/booklist.html

This book details all french aircraft in service with all nations during WW 1, including line drawings in 1/72 and 1/144 scales.

Al

In the same vein as Sagittarius Rising is Yeates’ classic Winged Victory.

It is fiction, buy Yeates had been a Camel pilot in WWI so provides the realism of what it was like in a well-written, easy to read story.

I had a copy of that until recently…. 🙁

Back in the 30s-60s, a WWI pilot, Arch Whitehouse, wrote dozens of books aboutthe airwar from a pilots perspective. I remember reading a couple as a child. I can’t give a review, but whatever he wrote may be of interest because of his experiences.

He even survived a shootdown by von Richthofen.

And there was a book in the late 60s-early 70s about German Bombers over England. I can’t recallits name…but would be interested if someone does.

The First Battle of Britain by Raymond H. Fredette (1966) can be highly recommended (if you can find a copy)

Regards

Goldilocks

Winged victory was so popular that many WW2 pilots brought it for it’s accurate description of air combat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory

Anyone know of any good books on the subject of World War I aviation? Anything that talks about the use of the various bombers, fighters, and recon airplanes would be what I’m looking for. I have a few pretty interesting books on the subject (some of them on specific airplane types), but any suggestions would be appreciated. I’m learning more and more about WWI aviation as I read about it, and it’s quite a bit more fascinating than I had originally thought.

If you really want to read more on WW1 aviation then can I suggest you join
Cross & Cockade, The society of WW1 Aero Historians, 4 very well produced magazines each year.

Jules

Back in the 30s-60s, a WWI pilot, Arch Whitehouse, wrote dozens of books aboutthe airwar from a pilots perspective. I remember reading a couple as a child. I can’t give a review, but whatever he wrote may be of interest because of his experiences.

He even survived a shootdown by von Richthofen.

And there was a book in the late 60s-early 70s about German Bombers over England. I can’t recallits name…but would be interested if someone does.

Arch Whitehouse was with 22 Squadron – apparently a lot of books were extremely glamourised for the large market in WW1 aviation stories at the time, but at least one ‘Hell in the Heavens’ which I have is quite a reputable one, i’ve compared it with 22 Squadron records and, aside from a few differences in timing, it’s pretty much spot on.

A more recent one came out about German bombers in WW1, entitled ‘The First Blitz’, which is a great read. For anyone wanting to do some WW1 Zeppelin/Gotha/Zeppelin Staaken tourism in the UK, ‘Baby Killers’ is a good one too

….Also in the Putnam catalogue there is a similar (but physically smaller) book on German types (haven’t got it to hand to say who the author was – Weiz??)…..Roger Smith.

This is actually “German Aircraft of the First World War” by Peter Gray & Owen Thetford.
Others in my ‘library’
“Aircraft of the 1914 – 18 War” by Owen Thetford & E.J.Riding (1946). Like the Harleyford titles Batman mentions this Harborough is A4 size with 1/72 scale drawings.
“Aircraft of World War 1” Kenneth Munson (Ian Allan 1967) a smaller (A5?) book but gives good overall coverage.
“World War One In The Air – A Pictorial History” Ken Delve (Crowood 1997).
“Janes Fighting Aircraft of World War 1” reprint of the 1919 publication. Comprehensive and has a smattering of technical detail (eg wing section of Fokker D.8)

Roger Smith.

Derek Robinson WW1 trio: War Story; Hornet’s Sting; and Goshawk Squadron.

Oh yes, especially Goshawk Squadron. I think this was the first of Robinson’s books that I read, and I utterly lapped it up.

2 books in my collection…and I would say as good as Sagittarius Rising are….

Combat Report by Capt Bill Lambert DFC

Wind in the Wires by Duncan Grinnell – Milne MC,DFC

As an edit to my previous post (5)
Had a look at the books last night and have added the 2 authors decorations/awards

From an Australian perspective, an interesting one is Harry Cobby’s High Adventure. He was Australia’s leading ace of WWI, this book was originally published in 1942. Re-issued in Kookaburra glossy format in 1981.

Derek Robinson WW1 trio: War Story; Hornet’s Sting; and Goshawk Squadron. For a beautifully written and illustrated historical resource, I can’t recommend “Aces High” by Alan Clark highly enough.

WW1 aviation is my real passion!

Back in the 30s-60s, a WWI pilot, Arch Whitehouse, wrote dozens of books aboutthe airwar from a pilots perspective. I remember reading a couple as a child. I can’t give a review, but whatever he wrote may be of interest because of his experiences.

He even survived a shootdown by von Richthofen.

And there was a book in the late 60s-early 70s about German Bombers over England. I can’t recallits name…but would be interested if someone does.

Peter Hart’s trio;

Somme Success
Bloody April
Aces Falling

are all superb

First of the Many, the story of Independent Force by Alan Morris is a great read as well.

My favourite first hand account is ‘Flying Minnows’ by Vivian Voss, who flew Bristol F2b’s, also a load of night bomber books I can reccomend – ‘Green Balls’ and ‘Night Raiders of the Air’ being two favourites

In the former category I think the seminal book covering British types is Jack Bruce’s ‘bible’ first published in 1957 (Putnam) “British Aeroplanes 1914 – 1918”.

While I have all the Putnam “company” books, I find some of their generic overviews by necessity aren’t very deep. Thetford’s Aircraft of the RAF was like this, I am unsure of Bruce’s book as I have never bought it.

What I can recommend are the old Harleyford “bibles”. I have two:
Fighter Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War (1960), and
Reconnaissance and Bomber Aircraft of the 1914-1918 War (1962).

Because of their A4 format, the diagrams (some fold-outs) are better than the smaller Putnam books.

In the same vein as Sagittarius Rising is Yeates’ classic Winged Victory.

It is fiction, buy Yeates had been a Camel pilot in WWI so provides the realism of what it was like in a well-written, easy to read story.

I haven’t read Sagittarius Rising for a long time, so I might go and buy myself a new copy off Amazon…