Aces High The War in the Air Over the Western Front 1914-18

"This is a book about the combat squadrons on the Western Front during the First World War. It is concerned with the idealistic young who joined the air arm in the early months of the war and evolved as the embittered but courageous aces of 1916 and 1917 - men like Albert Ball, Mick Mannock, Georges Guynemer, Charles Nungesser, Manfred von Richthofen and Raoul Lufbery ... Alan Clark writes also of the planes they flew, the evolution of those machines from 'stringbags' and 'flying coffins' to the sophisticated tactical instruments of 1918. He tells of the short-sightedness of the high commands who failed to recognise the significance of the aerial contribution to the war and sent men to their deaths in inadequate and badly-designed planes. More than merely a chronicle of aerial warfare during four turbulent years, Aces High is an exciting account of men at war in the skies and an illuminating survey of the tactics and strategies that led to ultimate Allied victory"--Jacket