Albatros Aces of World War I

Osprey Aircraft of the Aces #32

by Norman L.R. Franks

The Albatros family of fighters were amongst the most effective aircraft employed by the Idlfieg (Imperial German Air Service) for much of World War 1, with the D.III and D.Va being flown by most of the 363 pilots who qualified as aces at some point in their often brief careers. The Albatros was the scourge of the RFC on the Western Front in 1916-17, with pilots of the calibre of von Richthofen, Boelke and Schleich cutting swathes through their opponents. Well over 4000 Albatros scouts were built between 1916 and 1918, and they were also extensively used by the Austro-Hungarians against Russian, Italian and British aircraft until war's end.

100 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2000

About the author

Norman Leslie Robert Franks was an English militaria writer who specialised in aviation topics. He focused on the pilots and squadrons of World Wars I and II.

Reviews

[Robert Hepple]

First published in 2000, 'Albatros Aces of World War 1' is number 32 in the ever popular 'Osprey Aircraft of the Aces' series of military aviation books. In the well established format of this series, the text runs through the exploits of various Albatros Aces, loosely by unit and period, broken up by 13 pages of colour artwork profiles and concluding with some nicely drafted 1/72 scale four-view plans of the different Albatros variants. The text is especially well-written, and it overall adds up to a very satisfying read.

[Cormac Zoso]

The Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series, and indeed anything Osprey puts out, is top-quality history presented with a thicket-thick plethora of information. If you can't find the answer to a particular question about WW1 aircraft in this case, you will probably need to hold a seance to chat with a long-dead pilot since I'm guessing they would be the only other resource to answer it. These books are chock-full of info about their various subjects from the names of the mascots of the various Jastas (fighter groups) to the support length of that lower-right-hand strut there on the top of the Dr1. These are the best books available about WW1 aircraft and I assume all the other subjects this company covers which is everything involving warfare of any time. They have a huge library of information available. All of it is also well-written even though the material is dense at times and it just can't be avoided to list nugget after nugget that you kind of do have to slog through. For non-mechanical types, of which I am one, it also is a bit out of my league with information on that end of the story.

But these are the books to find the information in so you're on your way.