02-01-2023, 09:50 PM
I read this because it was about aviation in WWI. But it turned out to be more of a biography of the author's father (with the same name) who was first an ambulance driver, and then a pilot in WWI. So the first and last few chapters were just biographical. The central chapters were about flying in WWI. He must have been working on this for many years because he knew many of the flyers from his father's squadron and got access to their journals and flight logbooks, and recounts stories they told him. (The book wasn't published until 2003). A lot of detail about early aviation, particularly how unpredictable their machinery was, both the planes and their machine guns. And their planes were so crude: canvas over wood and wires to hold things together. Little information about the air war beyond the experiences of his father and his comrades.
Only recommended if you have a particular interest in early aviation or WWI or both. I think I wanted to read it because I had a Scholastic book called Flying Aces of World War I. It really brought me back when I read the names of aviators that I had long forgotten, like Albert Ball and Georges Guynemer.
Only recommended if you have a particular interest in early aviation or WWI or both. I think I wanted to read it because I had a Scholastic book called Flying Aces of World War I. It really brought me back when I read the names of aviators that I had long forgotten, like Albert Ball and Georges Guynemer.
the hands that guide me are invisible