HERO"S ALL. (Aces and Aircraft of World War 1 - Christopher Campbell)

Member Name: Stew Hall

Product:	Aces and Aircraft of World War 1 - Christopher Campbell
Date:	01/09/01 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great pictures., All about real Hero"s., Factual.

Disadvantages: We will never get to shake these mens hands.

Aces & Aircraft of World War 1.
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On the face of it, this looks like a pretty boring book. The cover shows a couple of early planes, medals & 2 black & white photos of people you won"t know!

The Introduction warms the reader to the beginnings of flying; France, England, Italy & the U.S. seemed leaps & bounds ahead of most other Nations.(There was Germany aswell)

Only a few years before the start of WW1, man had started using heavier than air machines to soar through the sky.

By the start of the war, early pioneers such as those referred to here enlisted; sometimes as a foot soldier or like the Canadian, W.A.Bishop, a Cavalry officer only to watch an Aircraft in the sky above & decide on the spur of the moment, that was the way to fight.

There are "Aces" from most Country"s covered in this book such as well known(Quite Rightly) flyers like,Von Richthofen,Ball & Rickenbacker.
But who has heard of Smirnoff(I bet you have , but not the Ace), Nungesser or Guynemer.

These men at a different time in History were the heros that the whole world knew; nowadays we tend to know wealthy footballers or politicians involved in scandels!

The narratives start with Charles Rumney Samson. How come Hollywood never made a movie about this guy.

Samson served in the Army, Navy & Air Force, he pioneered flying off a wooden ramp built above gun turrets on Battleships, was one of the first to take to the air in an offensive mode taking primitive bombs & a pistol & when the Allies were being pushed across Belgium by the Huns, he comandeered some London buses, fixed plate armour to the sides & mounted machine guns on them. He then proceeded to confuse & harrass the enemy with the first mobile warfare & became so effective that Britain sent him new armoured cars to back up the fighting.

Samson later was give
n command of an aerly Aircraft carrier & sent to the middle East where he, his ship & his Aircraft; the eastchurch flying club waged war on the poor Turks who had to contend with the Arabs & Lawrence of Arabia aswell.

The book is filled with entrys about aircraft & lots of photos & is well worth up to £20.

Summary: