WGFC: Bloody April: Slaughter in the Skies over Arras, 1917

[Nightbomber]

Submit a Book ReviewBook Title:
Bloody April. Slaugther in the skies over Arras, 1917 Author:
Peter Hart ISBN:
978-0-3043-6719-1 Category:
History Format:
Paperback Summary:
The story of the air war over Arras during the Entente offensive in 1917, with a general overview of the offensive itself as well.
The author uncovers the core sense of the air campaign undertaken by the British side before and during the battle of Arras.
Included are many detailed mission descriptions accompanied by authentic pilots' relations, very often confronted with other side's reports. Many true and often tragic personal stories are revealed.
Peter Hart takes a reader also to an officer's mess and shows a pilot's "life less ordinary" of the era.
37083

[Baldrick62]

I have a couple of Hart's books, including this one, and have found them an enjoyable and informative read. 'Bloody April' draws heavily on first-hand accounts to tell the tale, so the flow of historical events can get a bit bogged down in personal minutiae. 381pp plus 16 pages of fairly familiar photographs.

[Mike W]

Excellent book that enables the reader to understand how actions in the air tied to actions on the ground during the battle of Arras. The personal experiences from a wide range of diaries and letters made the book entralling to read.

[sparty]

Inspired the game of the same name from GMT that released this fall.

[7eat51]

Inspired the game of the same name from GMT that released this fall.

I just purchased this game and was looking for a book to accompany it. I guess this is the one. Thanks for pointing this out.

[tractorboy]

Really enjoy this book. The personal stories told by the pilots makes it an engrossing read. My favorite story in it was the RE8 commander (if I remember right) who had the mechanic jump in the back seat while he took the plane up and showed the squadron how maneuverable it was. When he landed he found the mechanic frozen with fear as he had forgot to tell him what he was going to do and he didnt strap himself in!

Like the game also

[zenlizard]

Since the publishing information has been presented at the beginning of this thread, I will omit it, and proceed directly to the review:

Book Review: Bloody April

Peter Hart has written an overall review of the aerial campaign carried out by the Royal Flying Corps, with much assistance from the Royal Naval Air Service, and opposed by the Luftstreitkräfte, during April, 1917. The campaign mainly surrounded the failed (despite Allied propaganda to the contrary) Battle of Arras.

Hart mainly relies on original sources for his narrative; not only official reports, but also, makes much, much use of individual diaries, contemporary newspaper accounts, and political records. The narrative focuses highly on the British aircrews, while occasionally giving a context for the aerial fighting. Secondarily, the same types of sources, when available, are used for the German aircrews.

This focus is the great strength of the book. Hart does well at illustrating the vast range of aerial missions that both sides flew, what the aircrews thought of them, how intensely the personnel involved felt about their fighting, and why the battle was fought the way it was.

Some of the latter is however, the weak point of the narrative; there are a couple of points where Hart devolves into an abject apologist for Trenchard’s mistaken policy. One of the latter is when Hart himself criticizes the criticism of one of the pilots involved in the fighting. Specifically, the pilot was lamenting the lack of escorts for the highly vulnerable reconnaissance machines, due to the fighter aircraft being overused for offensive patrols; Hart counters with the observation that the pilot didn’t “see the bigger picture”.

Overall, though, the strengths outweigh the flaws. Hart consistently emphasizes the main focus of the real work of the British aircrews: the support of the ground forces. He also does not neglect the crews of the observation balloons, nor of some of the ground troops, and what they were attempting to do, and their successes and failures.

In the final analysis, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to examine the aerial aspect of the Battle of Arras.