Fighter Aces Of The Great War

In this Stevie Diamond Mystery, Stevie and her partner have a thief to catch.

History has recorded that the first ever powered flight took place at Kitty Hawk in America, on 17 December 1903 and was carried out by the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, who were aircraft designers and manufacturers. By the time of the outbreak of the First World War, aviation was only eleven years old. The daddy of battlefield warfare until that point in time had been the cavalry, a position it maintained even as war was declared on the Western Front. Aircraft were not initially seen as an offensive weapon and were instead used by both sides as observation platforms, or to take aerial photographs from. Even when they were eventually used in an offensive capacity, they did not have machine guns attached to them; if the crew wanted to open fire then they had to use a pistol or rifle. As the war progressed so the use of aircraft changed from being an observational tool, to that of a fighter and bomber aircraft - something that had never been foreseen at the outbreak of the war. The book then looks at the fighter aces from all sides. These were pilots who had been credited with shooting or forcing down a minimum of five enemy aircraft, of which their were hundreds. While some of these aces survived, many of them were killed. The most famous fighter ace of all is without doubt the German pilot known as the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen.

This book examines the reality behind the myths of the legendary German fighter aces of World War II. It explains why only a small minority of pilots - those in whom the desire for combat overrode everything - accounted for so large a proportion of the victories. It surveys the skills that a successful fighter pilot must have - a natural aptitude for flying, marksmanship, keen eyesight - and the way in which fighter tactics have developed. The book examines the history of the classic fighter aircraft that were flown, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke Wulf Fw 190, and examines each type's characteristics, advantages and disadvantages in combat. The accounts of the experiences of fighter pilots are based on archival research, diaries, letters, published and unpublished memoirs and personal interviews with veterans. The pilots included are Werner Molders, Gunther Rall, Adolf Galland, Erich Hartmann and Johannes Steinhoff.

The First World War had an enormous impact on Ireland. Over 240,000 Irish men and women volunteered to serve with the Allied forces, suffering almost 40,000 casualties. The Irish contribution to the air war remains overlooked, not just in Ireland, but also by historians generally. Although just 6,000 Irish served with the Allied flying services at a cost of 500 casualties, their impact was out of all proportion to their numbers. The contribution of Irish aces of the RFC and RAF to the Allied cause was enormous, just over thirty of whom accounted for 400 enemy aircraft. Irishmen such as Mannock, McElroy and Hazell were among the highest-scoring pilots of the war. Some were revered by their men, others were controversial figures – reckless with their own lives and those under their command – but many of their stories remain untold. This book seeks to restore all those who were written out of Irish history, while also providing for their achievements to be considered in the overall context of the first air war. Illustrations: 24 black-and-white photographs

Here, Norman Franks tells the story, in words and images, of the emergence of some of the greatest fighter aces to see action during the first half of the First World War. He explores the manner in which the situation developed from late 1914 to the late summer of 1916, the point at which Oswald Boelcke helped form the German Jasta system that would prove so devastating to the RFC and RNAS. Utilizing images drawn from his large personal archive of photographs, Franks profiles some of the greatest and most notorious aces, as well as the aircraft in which they flew. The first years of the war saw some of the bravest acts of pilot gallantry and ingenuity play out. Franks celebrates the legacy of just a handful of these individuals, participants on both sides, including Boelcke's premier ace Manfred Von Richtofen, Lanoe Hawker, Georges Guynemer, Albert Ball, Lionel Rees, Wilhelm Frankl, and Stanley Dallas amongst many others.

By the close of 1916, the air war over France was progressing amazingly. The Royal Flying Corps, the French Air Force and the opposing German Air Service, were all engaged in fierce aerial conflict and the Allied air forces were following a particularly successful if aggressive policy. They were taking the war to the Germans by constantly crossing the massive trench system that stretched from the North Sea to the Swiss border. With observation and bombing aircraft requiring constant protection from the German fighter Jastas, the fighter aces on both sides soon gained publicity and fame as a result of their daily engagements. This book explores the many ways in which fighter pilots developed tactics in order to outdo the opposition in the fight for allied victory. In so doing, they achieved high honors on account of their prowess in the skies. It also looks at the development of militarized flight during the course of these key years, revealing how each side constantly endeavored to improve their aircraft and their gunnery.By early 1918 the Americans were also starting to take part in the war against Germany, and any number of US citizens were joining both the French Air Service as well as manning their own Aero Squadrons. This publication covers the development of American air combat, whilst also recording the efforts of some of their ace pilots flying both British and French aircraft with precision and skill.

Starting the war with only 35 aircraft, Austro-Hungarian industry went on to produce only moderate numbers of poor quality aircraft. The fliers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire operating on the Serbian and Russian fronts were fortunate at first, finding themselves faced by small numbers of aircraft yet more obsolescent than their own. Serbia fell in 1915, but when Italy declared war the Austro-Hungarians were still faced with a two-front war – a static front against Italy, and a far more fluid one against Russia. Austro-Hungarian fighter pilots performed bravely and often very effectively under extremely difficult geographic, climatic and operational conditions.