Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, From the Red Baron to the F-16 (80 page)

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Wubbe, Walter.
Hauptmann Hans Joachim Marseille Ein Jagdfligerschicksal in Daten, Bildern und Dokumenten.
Schnellbach: Verlag Siegfried Bublies, 2001.

Yenne, Bill.
Aces High.
New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 2009.

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Minneapolis: Zenith, 2006.

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The White Rose of Stalingrad.
n.d.

NOTES

PROLOGUE

A detailed account of Roland Garros and his machine gun is found in Arch Whitehouse’s
Decisive Air Battles of the First World War
(New York: Meredith Press, 1963). Records of Great War dogfights were usually fairly sketchy and the best references are either personal diaries or, when available, combat reports, though the latter tend toward extreme brevity. My account of his dogfight, and the specific workings of the Hotchkiss gun, was a compilation of all available sources in addition to the information provided in Trevor Howard’s excellent book,
The Sky Their Battlefield
(Grub Street, 1995), pp. 31–32.

F. W. Bailey and Christopher Cony’s compilation
The French Air Service War Chronology 1914–1918
(Grub Street, 2001) contains every known and documented engagement by French aircraft during the war. Due to the paucity of accurate information from the early years of combat aviation I cross-checked battles, facts, and personal information from as many sources as possible.

Will Boucher’s superb website, An Illustrated History of WWI (www.wwiaviation.com), provides well-written summaries and excellent color line drawings of every combatant aircraft used by all sides in the conflict.

CHAPTER ONE

I found the origins of World War I fascinating. Viewed through modern eyes it is an extremely complicated, yet vital part of our history as a bridge between the old and new worlds, the fall and rise of empires, and the birthplace of modern technology. See H. P. Willmott’s
World War I
(DK Publishing, 2003) and chapter 4 of G. W. Meyer’s
A World Undone
(Bantam Dell, 2006) for very readable accounts of the backgrounds, causes, and opening moves of this complex conflict.

Lee Kennett’s
The First Air War: 1914–1918
(Simon & Schuster, 1991), pp. 24–40, traces the early period when aircraft take over scouting from the cavalry and the military potential of the aircraft is first seriously considered. I particularly liked this book as he logically discusses details of World War I aircraft, their evolution into warplanes, and the men who flew them.

Stephen Longstreet does much the same in
The Canvas Falcons: The Men and Planes of WWI
(Barnes & Noble: 1970). Chapter 3 is especially relevant in revealing the early days of the war, each side’s reactions, and how the ground situation created the air war.

Arch Whitehouse’s
Decisive Air Battles of the First World War
(Meredith Press, 1963), pp. 41–43, also describes the new aluminum link system, which replaced canvas ammo belts.

In the spring of 1915 Anthony Fokker built his Eindecker, armed with a Parabellum machine gun. This was detailed in Trevor Howard’s
The Sky Their Battlefield
(Grub Street, 1995), p. 33. The interrupter gear, which permitted the firing of bullets through the propeller arc, was the first true technological advance that fundamentally changed aircraft into warplanes. I found the original
Handbook of “C.C.” Interrupter Gear, SECRET
(Ministry of Munitions, Department of Aircraft Production, March 1918). This permitted men like Oswald Boelke to quantify, direct, and lead the first true fighter pilots. His story is told in
Knight of Germany,
by Professor Johannes Werner (Casemate, 2009).

CHAPTER TWO

One of the more interesting avenues I researched concerned the men who became fighter pilots. I was fortunate enough to find several very good, albeit slightly obscure, sources on the subject. These included Robert Jackson’s
Fighter Pilots of World War I
(St. Martin’s Press, 1997) and Martin Kitchen’s
The German Officer Corps, 1890–1914
(Oxford University Press, 1998). Both provided insight not only into training, but the relative social backgrounds of specific pilots. An excellent article by James A. Shaw titled “Officer and Gentlemen: Gentlemanly Mystique and Military Effectiveness in the Nineteenth Century British Army,” provided some spectacular insights.

Rippon and Manuel’s
The Essential Characteristics of Aviators
(Lancet, 1918), was an amazing find, as it contained the first known medically sponsored survey of men who flew.

J. Herris and B. Pearson,
Aircraft of World War I
(Amber Books, 2010), along with F. Hugh W. Cowin,
Allied Aviation of World War I
(Osprey Publishing, 2000), provided very good technical data on the early Avros, Nieuports, and Fokkers.

Another surprising discovery was the Vintage Aero Museum in Fort Lupton, Colorado. Mr. Andy Hall was kind enough to donate time, historical material, and expertise—including Leutnant Josef Jacob’s Blue Max and his actual wartime logbooks.

Richard P. Hallion’s
Rise of Fighter Aircraft 1914–1918
(Nautical & Aviation Publishing, 1984) and Jon Guttman’s
The Origin of Fighter Aircraft,
(Westholme Publishing, 2009) were invaluable guides to the minute, yet often significant, aerodynamic and weapons advances made in the turbulent months of 1916.

Germany’s War in the Air: The Development and Operations of German Military Aviation in the World War
(Battery Press, 1921) by General Ernest von Hoeppner, is an authoritative look at German pilot selection, training, development, and operations.

CHAPTER THREE

H. P. Willmott’s
World War I
(DK Publishing, 2003), pp. 154–55, describes living conditions in the trenches and how the front lines were built. G. W. Meyer’s
A World Undone
(Bantam Dell, 2006) goes into considerable detail about German fortifications.

Aviators usually live a bit differently, simply because they have to remain near their aircraft. Both Werner’s
Knight of Germany,
pp. 121–22, and Longstreet’s
The Canvas Falcons,
p. 13, provide good descriptions of aerodrome life, food, and personnel sketches.

Frederick Libby,
Horses Don’t Fly
(Arcade Publishing, 2000), and Francis Conover Church,
Diary of a World War I Pilot
(Conover-Patterson Publishers, 2004), reveal the personal thoughts of the young men flying and fighting through their letters and diaries. As Libby states, “Girls weren’t expensive. . . . what more could a fellow ask?”

This chapter also explores and illustrates some of the changes that had taken place in formal flight training between 1914 and 1917. This was important not only as a sign that aviation was growing up, but also as a basis for the next seven decades of air combat. Kennett’s
The First Air War,
pp. 119–30, and particularly Conover’s
Diary,
pp. 200–205, were very helpful in telling it like it was.

Other necessary background includes some very basic aerodynamic principles and a limited discussion of engines, fuels, and how weapons are used in the air. Jane’s
Fighting Aircraft of World War I
(Military Press, 1990) and John D. Anderson’s superb
History of Aerodynamics
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) contain a great deal of supplementary information, as does Alec Lumsden’s
British Piston Engines and Their Aircraft
(Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003).

Evolution of aiming systems and description of the gate, ring and bead, and Aldis gunsights can be found in Wallace Clarke’s
British Aircraft Armament Vol 2: Guns and Gunsights
(Haynes Publications, 1995).

Whenever applicable, I felt that direct quotes from the pilots themselves were highly valuable. Among the very good sources for these are C. G. Jefford’s
The Flying Camels: The History of No. 45 Squadron
(Privately published, 1995), p. 25. See also the accounts of Major James McCudden, VC,
Flying Fury
(Casemate, 2009).

Spring of 1917 saw the pace of the air war build toward a crescendo; many new designs were fielded that incorporated the lessons learned the previous years. Tommy Sopwith led the way here, and Bruce Robertson’s
Sopwith: The Man and His Aircraft
(Air Review, 1970) describes not only the man but the manufacturing.

Jasta Pilots
(London: Grub Street, 1996) by Norman Franks and Frank Bailey is one of many sources I used for a look at the “other side.” To me, it is essential in any historical text to view the situation or conflict from as many sides as possible. Among others are Barry Diggens’s
September Evening: The Life and Final Combat of the German Ace Werner Voss
(Grub Street, 2003), E. D. Crundall’s
Fighter Pilot on the Western Front
(William Kimber, 1975), pp. 56–64, and Floyd Gibbons’s
Red Knight of Germany
(Doubleday, Page & Co., 1927).

As always, the personal stories concerning pilots on both sides reveal much of who they really were. Descriptions of Mick Mannock and Albert Ball in Robert Jackson’s
Fighter Pilots of World War I
(St. Martin’s Press, 1997) were very helpful, as was
Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918
(Grub Street, 1993) by Norman Franks, Frank W. Bailey, and Russell Guest.

Bloody April
(Orion Books, 2005) by Peter Hart is a magnificently detailed description of the men, machines, weapons, and politics of this crucial stage in the war. Particularly intriguing are the accounts of Albert Ball, pp. 333–44.

CHAPTER FOUR

Comments about Robert Smith-Barry and details concerning his training methods can be found in Vincent Orange’s “Robert Raymond Smith-Barry (1886–1949)” in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(Oxford University Press, 2004).

The events of Werner Voss’s death are well recorded by James McCudden in his own
Fighting Fury,
pp. 198–201, Howard’s
The Sky Their Battlefield,
p. 230, and
Fighter Pilots of World War I,
pp. 31–38.

Norman Franks, Frank W. Bailey and Russell Guest compiled a splendid collection that I utilized throughout the first section of this book. See their
Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914–1918
(Grub Street, 1992).

Mr. Andy Hall of the Vintage Aero Museum has a wealth of knowledge, much of it from his own family, concerning the Lafayette Escadrille. Multiple interviews and visits were conducted in February 2013.

An extensive reference is
The Lafayette Flying Corps
(Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, 2000) by Dennis Gordon. Recommended reading are pp. 25–32, concerning wartime Paris, and pp. 368–72, which sketch the life of Norman Prince.

A few of Raymond Collishaw’s “Black Flight” adventures with Sopwith Triplanes are chronicled in
Decisive Air Battles,
pp. 300–304,
The Sky Their Battlefield,
pp. 191–206, and Roger Gunn’s
Raymond Collishaw and the Black Flight
(Dundurn, 2013).

For an excellent summary of the war’s toll by early 1918 read chapter 1, pp. 8–20, o fPeter Hart’s
Aces Falling
(Orion Books Ltd., 2007).

The death of Manfred von Richthofen has been a century-long enigma. Very good details of the circumstances, as far as they are known, can be found in Gibbon’s
Red Knight of Germany,
pp. 353–60, and Hart’s
Aces Falling,
pp. 166–70. My own conclusions are described in chapter 4 and take into account all of these, plus my own experience as a fighter pilot and—most importantly—the Beavis Letter. This was originally a letter to the editor of the
Army Quarterly
(British) in 1931. Courtesy of Andy Hall, I’ve examined the actual document, which resides in the Vintage Aero Museum.

CHAPTER FIVE

Willmott’s
World War I,
pp. 252–58, describes final German offensives as they try to end the war prior to large-scale American involvement, as does all of Part Six of Meyer’s
A World Undone.

Accounts of the deaths of many of the great aces can be read in Terry C. Treadwell and Alan C. Wood’s
German Knights of the Air, 1914–1918
(Brasseys, 1997), Franks, Bailey, and Guest’s
Above the Lines,
and Shores, Franks, and Guest’s
Above the Trenches.
As always, Peter Hart’s unique perspectives are well worth reading in
Aces Falling,
pp. 200–204.

Major Billy Barker’s astounding final dogfight is described in several sources, among them Howard’s
The Sky Their Battlefield,
pp. 444, and Jackson’s
Fighter Pilots of World War One,
pp. 82–90.

Germany in 1918 is poignantly illustrated in Willmott’s
World War I,
p. 285.

CHAPTER SIX

As President Woodrow Wilson remarked, “. . . it is finished, and, as no one is satisfied, it makes me hope we have made a just peace; but it is all in the lap of the gods.” The final chapter of Meyer’s
The Great War,
pp. 705–715, gives a solid understanding of the post-1918 world, as does the first two chapters of
Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed The World
(Random House, 2001) by Magaret MacMillan.

A truly seminal event, the Polish-Soviet war of 1919–21, had lasting, if largely unappreciated, results for Western Europe. See Jerzy B. Cynk’s
History of the Polish Air Force 1918–1968
(Osprey Publishing Ltd., 1972) and the 1st edition of
Polish Aircraft 1893–1939
(Putnam & Company Ltd.). I also personally visited the Muzeum Narodowe (Polish National Museum) in Warsaw, as well as several of the battlefields to gain a better perspective on this period.