Page 151 - Demo

151scores of selected %u2018ace%u2019 German fighter pilots of WW I. This one, a 192-page hardback, deals with B%u00f6hme, M%u00fcller, von Tutschek and Wolff. Ineach case we are provided with biographical details and an account ofthe subject%u2019s military career, amplified by a detailed examination of eachof the subject%u2019s combat claims. The participants in each incident areidentified and, to the extent that records permit, we are presented with areconstruction of what occurred, this exercise serving to ratify themajority of claims while revealing which %u2018victims%u2019 actually survived tofight another day. Details of the background and military career of eachof the victims, real and imagined, are also provided. Remarkably, theauthors have been able to unearth pictures of a large proportion of thepeople involved and the book contains numerous photographs ofindividuals and, in some cases, their (often wrecked) aeroplanes.The fact that this is the third book in the series testifies to thepopularity of the formula. It is, I think, deservedly successful because theinvestigations are in sufficient depth to persuade the reader that theauthors%u2019 conclusions are valid while, at the same time, adding aworthwhile degree of texture to the cold statistics of victory tallies. Thereis, for instance, a charming anecdote describing No 2 Sqn%u2019s Maj HubertHarvey-Kelly%u2019s sportsmanlike (%u2018Your bird, I think%u2019) relinquishing ofcredit for what was probably the first ever aerial victory (on 25 August1914) to Lt Cuthbert Rabagliati of No 5 Sqn. By reading between thelines, one can also discern the effects of some of the social distinctions ofthe day. Most British aviators of WW I were officers and it is relativelyeasy (and %u2018relatively%u2019 is the operative word here, not %u2018easy%u2019) to finddetails of their careers; it is much harder to do this in the case of noncommissioned personnel. This becomes apparent in this book wherethere are a couple of instances of a commissioned pilot being affordedhalf a column or so while the details applicable to his air mechanicgunner may be confined to little more than name, rank and serialnumber. Other Ranks were not quite anonymous, but they were often notmuch more than nominal.Recommended.CGJTyphoon Attack by Norman Franks. Grub Street, 2003. %u00a319.99.Originally published in 1984 by Kimber; this new edition includesthree fresh contributions as an appendix. It is the story of an ultimately