WGFA: First Great Air War, The

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Book Title:

The First Great Air War

Author:

Richard Townsend Bickers

ISBN:

9780340263792

Category:

History

Format:

Hardback

Summary:

Published in 1988, this book harks back to an earlier era. Despite some reasonable descriptive work, it struck me as a polemic of brave Entente airmen against the dastardly Hun, particularly that cowardly murderer of defenceless 2-seater crews, Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen. Given that the observation aircraft were supporting the most effective killing technology of the war, artillery, shooting down these aircraft could actually be interpreted as a great act of humanity. Of MvR's 80 kills, only 29 (less than 25%) were against observation machines (and that number includes 3 Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutters, which may have actually been fighters), while virtuous Entente airmen like Albert Ball scored only 13 of his 44 kills against scouts (so more than 70% against 2-seaters) and Georges Guynemer scored at best (given the vagaries of target description) 12 of his 53 acknowledged kills against scouts (so greater than 75% against 'defenceless' 2-seaters). But history is written by the victors (attributed to Winston Churchill).
Overall, for me it's a jingoistic, biased stinker.

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