Download or read book The Diary Letters of a World War I Fighter Pilot written by Christopher M. Burgess and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2008-10-17 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a first-hand account of the authors grandfather, Guy Mainwaring Knocker and his experiences as a pilot in the R.F.C. in the First World War written as a series of letters and diary entries. He wrote letters virtually every day to his family, while he trained in England and was in service in France, and often illustrated them with little sketches. Guy was a gifted artist, particularly pencil and Pen & ink, and also an excellent photographer. He flew with No 65 (Fighter) Squadron that was formed in June, 1916 as a fighter squadron, and flew to France in March 1917 in time to play a prominent part in the air operations during the Battles of Arras. In June 1917, the squadron moved to Calais for special patrol work in the Dover Straits area, to intercept enemy aircraft raiding England.
Download or read book Diary of a WWI Pilot written by Harvey Conover and published by Conover-Patterson Publishers. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Diary of a Night Bomber Pilot WWI written by Clive Semple and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2008-03-28 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flying at 18, demobbed at 20, Semple's astonishing experience has been meticulously put into context. How do you fly a Handley Page across France in total darkness? The answer is the 'Lighthouse system', just one of the revelations in this unique record of ingenuity and courage.
Download or read book Death in the Air written by Wesley D. Archer and published by Frontline. This book was released on 2016-07-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The typewritten script of a First World War pilot s diary with a large number of photographs was submitted to the publishers William Heinemann and published by them in 1933. Heinemann stated on the book s jacket that the diary contained no names, dates, or anything that could reveal the identity of the writer or the squadron in which he served. The publishers understood that the diarist was killed in action in 1918 and that it was in deference to the wishes of those who were close to him that his diary should be published.So remarkable were the photographs that their veracity was immediately questioned, but no proof of their authenticity or otherwise could be ascertained. It was not until 1983 that a collection of documents, photographs and artifacts was presented to the Smithsonian s National Air and Space Museum. Some of the photographs were recognized as being those of the mystery diarist and the truth was soon revealed. The author was Wesley Archer, an American with Canadian parents who served with the RFC in the First World War, and the photographs and diary had been faked."
Download or read book War Birds written by John MacGavock Grider and published by . This book was released on 1938 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "... In the summer of 1917, two hundred and ten young university men, who had joined the Air Service at the declaration of war, volunteered for immediate service abroad. They were sent to England, just as others were sent to France, Italy, and Canada, to be trained by our allies and to fight with them until we could supply them with fighting planes. One of these men kept a diary which has been published as "War Birds." He was one of two hundred and ten ... but because he was closest to me in life, I have undertaken to publish the story of his career in the A.E.F. Before he was killed, he gave me his diary and told me how he would like to have his deeds reported in case I survived him. He was very definite in his ideas and I agreed to respect them. He promised to do the same for me in case I should go first. I have discharged this trust faithfully. Though "War Birds" is an individual diary, intended only to refresh the mind of the writer in later years, it became the actual history of those two hundred and ten men. It tells, for the first time, of their lives and deaths, their successes and their failures. Though it gives the opinions and prejudices of one individual, these same opinions and prejudices were shared by us all. Whatever errors he made were made by us all. If he committed any transgressions, so did we all. It could have been the diary of any of the two hundred and ten. ... Of the two hundred and ten men who landed in England and trained with the Royal Flying Cops, fifty-one were killed, thirty were wounded, fourteen were prisoners of war, and twenty became mentally unfit for flying before they finished their training. When the Armistice was signed, the survivors found themselves on the American front, under the American high command. ... They wandered home by various channels - a sort of lost battalion - disillusioned and discouraged. ... They were without rank or medals and they suffered by comparison with the much decorated pilots from the American front who returned with rank and headlines. It was for these survivors that the publication of "War Birds" was intended. They will attest to its authenticity. And they will understand it. ...It is not an attempt to make heroes of any group of men. It is the actual story of one man and his friends ... The ten men whose names appear in it most prominently read it and compared it with their own diaries and records. They gave their endorsement to it without asking for a single deletion or change ... My name and Callahan's appear oftener than any others. I have no apologies to make for that since we three were constantly together for nearly a year. None of the books I have read about the war mention the fact any one beside the writer therof did any fighting at all. I do not like this title "War Birds." It was given to the diary by Liberty and stuck so closely that it was necessary to use it on the book. But to me it will always be "The Diary of the Unknown Aviator." His body lies at Houplines, near Armentieres. His spirit still haunts the pages of his diary...I have carried out his orders"--Foreword, page ix, signed by Elliott White Springs, dated Fort Mill, S.C. July 1927.
Download or read book War Birds written by John MacGavock Grider and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dagbogsnotater af en ukendt amerikansk pilot, der deltog i 1. verdenskrig beskriver her pilotens oplevelser og den tids luftoperationer. Redigeret som flyvelitteratur snarere end et historisk værk.
Download or read book War Birds written by Elliott White Springs and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the declaration of war by the United States, more than 200 American men, unwilling to wait until US squadrons could be raised, volunteered to join the Royal Flying Corps in the summer of 1917. Amongst these men was John MacGavock Grider and Elliott White Springs who both joined 85 Squadron to fly SE.5 fighters.During his service with the RFC and the RAF, Grider kept a record of his experiences from when he joined up until his untimely death in 1918, when he was shot down over the Western Front. Before his death, Grider had made a pact with Elliott White Springs that in the event of one of them dying, the other would complete their writings. Springs went on to write this book, an amalgamation of his own recollections and Griders diary and correspondence.War Birds records in detail the stresses of training and the terror and elation of failure and success during combats with the enemy the First World War. This unique edition of War Birds has been produced from a copy owned by another officer from 85 Squadron, Lieutenant Horace Fulford. In his copy, Fulford made numerous handwritten annotations and stuck in a number of previously unpublished photographs all of which have been faithfully reproduced.
Download or read book Death in the Air written by and published by . This book was released on 1936 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An American Pilot in the Skies of France written by Percival Taylor Gates and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1992 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An American Pilot in the Skies of France collects the diaries and letters which chronicle the experiences of one young American aviator during the first World War. Percival Gates served as a combat flier in the fledgling United States Air Service from 1917 to 1918. His writings tell the story not of a famous ace, but rather that of an American youth like thousands of others sent to Europe to fight the "war to end all wars." Gates provides a total picture of the pilot's life as he describes his experiences both on ground and in the sky. The diaries are particularly telling in Gates' discussion of his training and the dangers inherent in flying the development aircraft of the era. Together with a fine introduction by editor, David K. Vaughan, these writings constitute a remarkable set of memoirs in which one young man's experience in the Great War lives on today.
Download or read book Hero of the Angry Sky written by David S. Ingalls and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-16 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hero of the Angry Sky draws on the unpublished diaries, correspondence, informal memoir, and other personal documents of the U.S. Navy’s only flying “ace” of World War I to tell his unique story. David S. Ingalls was a prolific writer, and virtually all of his World War I aviation career is covered, from the teenager’s early, informal training in Palm Beach, Florida, to his exhilarating and terrifying missions over the Western Front. This edited collection of Ingalls’s writing details the career of the U.S. Navy’s most successful combat flyer from that conflict. While Ingalls’s wartime experiences are compelling at a personal level, they also illuminate the larger, but still relatively unexplored, realm of early U.S. naval aviation. Ingalls’s engaging correspondence offers a rare personal view of the evolution of naval aviation during the war, both at home and abroad. There are no published biographies of navy combat flyers from this period, and just a handful of diaries and letters in print, the last appearing more than twenty years ago. Ingalls’s extensive letters and diaries add significantly to historians’ store of available material.
Download or read book The Diary of a Flying Soldier During the First World War on the Western Front 1914 18 written by Anonymous and published by Leonaur Limited. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rifleman, Highland regiment officer and RFC pilot--one man's incredible war This book's original title, 'A Soldier's Diary of the Great War', did nothing--despite being an excellent account--to give potential readers any indication that it is a very unusual diary of the First World War by a British Officer. The author put more literary effort into writing this diary than is normally the case, this makes this both an informative and enjoyable read for those interested in the period. However, what makes this diary especially interesting is that the author first enlisted as a rifleman in the ranks of the London Rifle Brigade and served in France. He then became an officer in a Scottish infantry regiment, the Cameron Highlanders. After further service in the trenches in 1916 he volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps and was accepted for pilot training. The final section of his diary, concerning the war in the air in 1917, is a record of his flying experiences. This is a valuable diary of varied Great War recollections and is recommended. This Leonaur edition contains photographs not present in the original publication. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.
Download or read book A Pilot s Story written by Irwin Lebow and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the United States was attacked by Japan Irwin Lebow worked as a tool and die makers apprentice in a defense plant. Not willing to wait to be drafted, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps to fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot. In his diary, Lebow cronicals his 93 missions, as a P47 Thunderbolt pilot in the European Theater in World War II. This is a story written by a 22 year young man being exposed to life and death situations on a daily basis, but also living with the thrill and excitement of doing things that movies are made of. These are the memories of the highs of climbing out of the cockpit after returning from successful missions destroying enemy targets. And the lows of losing a friend in combat.
Download or read book A Rattle of Pebbles written by Brereton Greenhous and published by Canadian Government Publishing. This book was released on 1987 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personal stories from the Great War of 1914-1918.
Download or read book Johnnie Johnson s 1942 Diary written by Dilip Sarkar and published by Air World. This book was released on 2020-12-28 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique insight into how fighter pilots lived, loved—and died—through the diary of the top-scoring RAF Ace who survived the Battle of Britain. A one-time household name synonymous with the superlative Spitfire, Air Vice-Marshal “Johnnie” Johnson’s aerial combat successes of World War II inspired schoolboys for generations. As a “lowly Pilot Officer,” Johnson learned his fighter pilot’s craft as a protégé of the legless Tangmere Wing Leader, Douglas Bader. After Bader was brought down over France and captured on 9 August 1941, Johnnie remained a member of 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron. By the beginning of 1942, when Johnnie’s diary begins, Fighter Command was pursuing an offensive policy during daylight hours, “reaching out” and taking the war to the Germans in France. It was also a period in which the Focke-Wulf Fw outclassed the Spitfire Mk.V. In Johnnie’s words, the Fw 190 “drove us back to the coast and, for the first time, pilots lost confidence in the Spitfire.” As well as his participation in Rhubarb and Circus sorties, Johnnie was also involved in Operation Jubilee on 19 August 1942. In this diary, published here for the first time, we get a glimpse of the real Johnnie, and what it was really like to live and breathe air-fighting during one of the European air war’s most interesting years: 1942. Presented on a day-by-day basis, each of Johnnie’s entries is supported by an informative narrative written by the renowned aviation historian Dilip Sarkar, drawing upon official documents and his interviews and correspondence with the great man. “Provides a number of insights into life in the RAF Fighter Command of that period.—Most Highly Recommended.” —Firetrench
Download or read book 2nd Part A fighter pilot s diary of World War 2 written by Richard William Winn and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Death in the Air written by and published by . This book was released on 1936 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beskrivelse og billeder af luftoperationer (Luftkampe) under 1. verdenskrig
Download or read book The Air Battle for Malta written by James Douglas-Hamilton and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2007-01-31 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an intriguing and realistic account of the struggle for the possession of Malta during World War II. The air battle raged for two and a half years during which time 14,000 tons of bombs were dropped on a defiant population.The history is based on the diaries of Lord David Douglas-Hamilton, the author's uncle, who was the leader of a Spitfire squadron that defended the island during the worst of the crisis.
