The First Great Air War

by Richard Townshend Bickers

1914, and the war in the skies was just beginning.Just eleven years after the Wright brothers' first flight, the Royal Flying Corps set off for France, and every aspect of air-fighting had to be discovered for the first time.At the start of the First World War, the flying machine was hardly taken seriously; it was an odd, accident-prone diversion for the rich and the obsessed.Four years later when the war had ended, such had been the pace of development that almost the entire range of modern aircraft types had from fighters to bombers, from ground attack to reconnaissance.‘The First Great Air War’ is the full, fascinating account of how a handful of men, British, French, German and Italian, young, with a love of flying and adventure, went to war. Of how tactics, planes and attitudes developed from the amateur to the professional. It is the story of air aces and individual courage, of technical innovation and the coming of age of air power.‘A valuable history of the air war that began it all … by an ex-flyer of the Second World War who has a genuine feeling for the feats of his predecessors’ - THE BIRMINGHAM POST‘His sympathy with the fighting man (and woman) shines out of every page’ - LIVERPOOL DAILY POSTRichard Townsend Bickers volunteered for the RAF on the outbreak of the second world war and served, with a Permanent Commission, for eighteen years. He wrote a range of military fiction and non-fiction books, including ‘Torpedo Attack’, ‘My Enemy Came Nigh’, ‘Bombing Run’, ‘Fighters Up’ and ‘Summer of No Surrender’.Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

Genres: Aviation, War

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Richard Leslie Townshend Bickers has written more books about the RAF and its predecessor, the RFC, than any other author past or present - some under a pseudonym. Being multilingual, he does his own research in foreign archives and by interviews and correspondence. His short stories and newspaper articles were first published and broadcast while he was a serving RAF officer. By the time he left the RAF his first four novels had appeared. His biography of his friend "Ginger" Lacey, the top-scoring pilot in the Battle of Britain, was published to acclaim in 1962.Bickers volunteered for the RAF on the outbreak of war and served, with a Permanent Commission, for eighteen years. In England he operated with Fighter and Coastal Commands; in North Africa and Italy with Desert Air Force and Mediterranean Allied Coastal Air Force. After the war he did a tour in Hong Kong and Malaya.

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think I had much to learn about the First World War in the air, but I found plenty of new things in here, including the fact that the observer's brevet - an O with a single wing - was instantly dubbed the 'Flying Arsehole'.

Covering the war chronologically, across all the air forces involved, gives a good overview, although the author sometimes skips about to fit in a particularly good story. Worth noting that the British airmen are mostly described as brave noble fearless cheers cheers cheers, the French eccentric, the Italians flamboyant, while the Germans are handled less kindly, with von Richthofen especially getting it in the neck.

[Yanik]

DNF
This is not for me.

This is not a academic historical overview of the development of the WW1 airwar and its aircraft.
It's a flowery, romanticized telling of 'Great Men' of that era, and then primarily the British ones.
There wasn't a single aircraft description but several page long introductions to the characteristics of handsome and wonderful chaps in the first three chapters.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First World War has been sliced and diced just about as many ways as it can be, and in some ways I feel like authors need to find a 'new' angle to catch my interest. I realise this was published some time ago, but received a copy for review through Netgalley from the publisher.

I recently finished a similar - although much more focussed - book called Fighting the Flying Circus, by Eddie Rickenbacker, which gave an insight into a particular aspect of the air war. This book, by contrast, was much wider in scope, but managed to maintain the personal aspect of the war, bringing it down to earth (no pun intended) by relating personal insights and stories with historical detail, and technical information about the ongoing developments in air power.

I also enjoyed the comparison to events and characters in the Second World War - particularly the Battle of Britain - which I understand the author has also written extensively about. This book brought home to me just how widespread the war in the air was, not just limited to the war over France.

I thought the book was well-paced, informative, and easy to read.

[T.L. Blackman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive.