Reconnaissance and Bomber Aces of World War 1, Osprey Aircraft
of the Aces -123.
Written by John Guttman, and Illustrated by Harry Dempsey.
Scope – Narrow, focuses on a very specific subject.
Completeness – Amazingly so.
Appeal –limited to a specific audience.
Accuracy –Although I’m not able to judge, considering that
it’s the author’s 18th book on world war one aviation related
subjects, it’s probably incredibly accurate.
Years ago, in high school, a friend of mine and I used to
mock the Osprey books we saw in the hobby stores because of the obscurity and
limitedness of some of their titles. Although we were snot-nosed teenagers
unwittingly displaying our ignorance, this is exactly the sort of book we would
target. This 96 page book focuses, as
the title says, on aces, people who shot down five or more enemy planes, while
serving in the larger planes of the era, the ones with two man or larger crews.
These larger planes were not intended to be used as fighters but instead, as
the title indicates, were assigned to reconnaissance or bombing duties. Nevertheless,
these planes and their crews often saw direct combat with enemy aircraft and a
surprising number of their crewmembers became aces. This book tells the little
known story of the world war one fighter aces who served in these large planes.
If this subject interests you, ignore any mocking teenagers
who see no value in it. If this subject interests you, then this book should
make you very, VERY happy indeed.
Divided by nation, this book covers aces from the military
air units of France, the United Kingdom, the U.S.A., Germany and
Austro-Hungary. (Apparently these were the only nations who had people who
became aces while flying multiperson crewed planes.)
For each nation it discusses the planes that were used and
their weaponry. (No surprise to Osprey fans.) This was interesting. For
instance, I was very surprised to learn at how often, particularly when a
machine gun would jam, a crewman would pull out a carbine and start firing at
enemy planes and crew.
But, perhaps more interestingly, this book attempts to
provide a brief biography of almost every Reconnaissance and bomber ace of the First
World War. These are generally fascinating. We learn where people were born,
how they came to be part of the crew of one of these planes, and, if they
survived the war, where they went to next and what they did with the rest of
their lives. We learn of French aces who
spent their senior years trying to sort out the division of their country into
Vichy and Free French forces, Austro-Hungarians being involved in Czech
independence, Americans chasing wild flying feats to earn prizes offered by
pineapple tycoons, and more. As would be
expected many of these men had fascinating lives both before and after the war.
–they were world war one flying aces after all, and one can’t get more exotic
and exciting than that.
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