Full Description
This beautifully illustrated book provides information on the air arms of the nations which took part in aerial warfare during the First World War featuring the Aces and their mounts. The war was a global conflict with 57 nations involved, but with aviation being in its infancy only eight nations had a major air arm to their fighting Services. The Allies: Britain, America, Italy, Belgium, France, and Russia and then the Central Powers comprising Germany and Austria-Hungary. This book is not intended to be comprehensive, for to provide such a work would require many volumes totalling thousands of pages. Instead this should be viewed as a relatively detailed overview; a general introduction to the topic of military aviation in the First World War. The aim has been to produce a well-illustrated book to maintain the interest of the reader with some short biographies of the leading Aces and basic information on the aircraft types used, and their development during the First World War. Furthermore, this book focuses on the air arms initially developed by the respective armies, and therefore the air arms of the navies, although fleetingly touched upon, are not dealt with in much detail. To provide reasonable coverage for the Royal Naval Air Service alone would require a separate and substantial additional volume. In a similar manner, although Zeppelins, other airships and balloons are mentioned and illustrated, little detail is given. The book contains details of the top Aces for each nation and in extensive illustration sections provides an extensive summary of the aircraft flown. While much of the focus is on the Aces, the book provides information on the aircraft flown and also has a separate illustrated section on Manfred von Richthofen and his 'flying circus'.
Contents
Preface; Introduction; Basic Statistics; The Main Aircraft Types Used by the Protagonists in Alphabetical Sequence; Further Aircraft Statistics for France, Great Britain and Germany; The End of the War on the German Side; The Scope of Coverage and the Methods used in this Book; The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Dominions and Empire; Aircraft flown by the RFC during the First World War; RFC and RAF First World War Aces and Airmen; The Invaluable Services of Dominion Forces; Canada; Australia; New Zealand; South Africa; The French Military Air Service: Aéronautique Militaire; French Aircraft of the First World War; The French Aces and Airmen; The United States Air Service 1916-1918; United States Aces; Italy: Aeronautica de Regio Esercito; Italian Aircraft of the First World War; Italian Aces; Belgium: Belgian Air Arm: Compagnie des Aviateurs: Aviation Militaire; Belgian Aces; Imperial Russian Air Service; Russian Aces and Airmen; Imperial German Air Service: Luftstreitkräfte; German Aces and Airmen; The Austro-Hungarian Empire: Naval Air Service: Luftahrtruppen; Austro-Hungarian Aces; The Lesser Military Air Services of the First World War; Appendix: The Royal Aircraft Factory.
