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Grace, Dick,
SQUADRON OF DEATH: True Adventures of a Movie Plane-Crasher.
VG/G. Jacket fairly battered, with numerous
tape repairs, color flaked off along hinges, price-clipped, chipped on
spine-ends, but about 95% present and colors still bright. Book itself
is bright & sound. Previous owner's signature on end-page.. (Sun Dial Press., 1937). Illustrated
end-pages. frontispiece, photos, 304 pages.
~~~ Author flew with the
Northern Bombing Group near Dunkirk during the war, and in later in
Italy, but the Armistice came before he saw any real action. After the
war he took up barn-storming, made his way by chance to Hollywood, and
he hired on as a stunt pilot, crashing planes professionally in such
WWI moves as "Wings", "Lilac Time" and "The Flying Circus".
$45.00
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Hart, Peter,
BLOODY APRIL: Slaughter in the Skies over Arras, 1917
. NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket.
(Orion Publishing, 2005). Illustrated. 384 pages.
~~~ As the Allies embarked upon the Battle of
Arras, they desperately needed air support from the Royal
Flying Corps. But by this point the RFC were flying
obsolete planes. The new German Albatros scouts massively
outclassed them in every respect: speed, armament,
ability to withstand punishment and maneuverability.
~~~ Many of the RFC's pilots were straight out of flying
school - as they took to the air they were sitting targets
for the experienced German aces. Over the course of
'Bloody April' the RFC suffered casualties of
over a third.
~~~ The average life expectancy of a
new subaltern on the front line dropped to just eleven
days. And yet they carried on flying, day after day, in
the knowledge that, in the eyes of their commanders at
least, their own lives meant nothing compared to the tens
of thousands of soldiers on the ground who were being
lost daily.
~~~ In this book Peter Hart tells the
story of the air war over Arras, using the voices of the
men who were actually there. His research has uncovered a
vast amount of previously unpublished information, some
of which is controversial: for example, were some of the
British aces being completely truthful about their
fabulous victories?
~~~ Currently in print at
$32.95.
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Hastings, H.D. & Paul Parker, Jr,
WAR PLANES IN BATTLE DRESS.
The authors have meticulously researched the exact markings of eight different WWI aircraft and render them in beautiful color plates with accompanying photographs and text. Each plate gives top, bottom & side view.
Authors' research in many cases included interviews with the actual pilots & mechanics of the specific planes.
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Fitch, Willie S.,
WINGS IN THE NIGHT:
Flying the Caproni Bomber in World War I.
NEW copy, hardcover issued without dust jacket.
(Nashville: Battery Press, 1989). Reprint of original 1938 edition.
36 photographs, 302 pages.
~~~ Fitch ws one of the 406 U.S. air cadets who graduated from the Italian primary flying school at Foggia during
WW I. Assigned to the 14th Gruppo Aeroplani, Squadriglia 10, he flew the giant Caproni bomber against the Austrians,
including the famous Pola Naval Base raid. This is an excellent account of America's first experience with heavy
bombers and the role played by Fiorello LaGuardia as commander of U S aviation in Italy during the war.
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Gentilli, Roberto, Antonio Iozzi & Paulo Varriale,
ITALIAN ACES OF WORLD WAR I AND THEIR AIRCRAFT.
NEW copy, hardcovers. 9x12. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing). Over 500 b&w photographs and color aircraft profiles, 496 pages.
~~~
For the first time, a detailed history of a little known aspect of the Great War in the air: the forty-two Italian aces. From legendary personalities such as Francesco Baracca and Scaroni to completely forgotten aces, each biography details their personalities, and their combat careers during and after the war. Charts report all their victories, with careful cross-referencing to Austrian and German losses. An introduction puts the air war on the Italian front in perspective, showing the development and actions of the Italian air force including many orders of battle, and brief histories of all fighter squadrons. Over 500 previously unpublished photographs from private sources, as well as twenty-four pages of color profiles of Nieuports, Spads, Hanriots and Macchis provide a stunning visual complement for the historian and modeler.
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Jane, Fred T.,
JANE'S FIGHTING AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR I:
A Comprehensive Encyclopedia with More than 1000 Illustrations.
VG/VG. Small remainder dot to top edge of pages.
(NY: Military Press, 1990).
Book & jacket in very nice condition, with jacket in mylar. Originally
published by Jane's in 1919. Forward by John W.R. Taylor. Lavishly illustrated
throughout with numerous photographs, tables & diagrams on nearly every page.
Planes arranged by nationality, with 75 pages given over to photographs,
diagrams & detailed description of aircraft engines (arranged by manufacturer). 320 pp.
~~~ To provide readers with a more comprehensive record of the aircraft
that fought aviation's first great war, the compiler of "Jane's Fighting
Aircraft of World War I" has supplemented the 1919 material by extracting
entries on significant military aircraft from the 1914, 1916, 1917 & 1918
editions (there was none in 1915) ... It has to be remembered that in wartime
it is seldom possible to describe in full detail the structures, dimensions,
weights, performance and armament of contemporary aircraft built by
manufacturers on one's side. Even the 1919 edition of All the World's Aircraft
was compiled partly during the stilll-desperate closing months of the conflict,
with some updating after it ended. So, the descriptions of individual aircraft
in this book are, for the most part, based on reports and studies of German
aircraft that had been captured (often in a damaged state) by the Allies, and
vice versa. They are of considerable historical interest and, although they
could not include all the facts and figures that became available later, they
provide some of the most detailed descriptions of important aircraft that have
ever appeared in any reference book.
~~~ Originally published at $80, now Out of Print.
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Libby, Frederick,
HORSES DON'T FLY:
A Memoir of World War I.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket.
(Arcade Publishing, 2000).
274 pages.
~~~ From breaking wild horses in Colorado to fighting the Red Baron's squadrons in the skies over France, here in
his own words is the true story of a forgotten American hero: the cowboy who became our first ace and the first pilot to fly
the American colors over enemy lines. Growing up on a ranch in Sterling, Colorado, Frederick Libby mastered the cowboy
arts of roping, punching cattle, and taming horses. Once he even roped an antelope. As a young man he exercised his skills
in the mountains and on the ranges of Arizona and New Mexico as well as the Colorado prairie. When World War I broke
out, he found himself in Calgary, Alberta, and joined the Canadian army. In France, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps
as an "observer," the gunner in a two-person biplane. Libby shot down an enemy plane on his first day in battle over the
Somme, which was also the first day he flew in a plane or fired a machine gun. He went on to become a pilot. He fought
against the legendary German aces Oswald Boelcke and Manfred von Richthofen. He became the first American to down
five enemy planes and won the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in action. When the United States entered the war,
he became the first person to fly the American colors over German lines. Libby achieved the rank of captain before he
transferred back to the United States at the behest of another aviation legend, then-colonel Billy Mitchell.
~~~
Written in 1961 and never before published, Horses Don't Fly is a rare piece of Americana. Libby's memoir of his
cowboy days in the last years of the Old West will remind readers of Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy--- but it's
the real thing. His description of World War I combines a rattling good account of the air war over France with captivating
and sometimes poignant depictions of wartime London, the sorrow for friends lost in combat, and the courage and
camaraderie of the Royal Flying Corps. Told in a modest, self-deprecating, and often humorous voice in a pure
American vernacular, Horses Don't Fly is, as Winston Groom notes in his introduction, "not only an important
piece of previously unpublished history [but] a gripping and uplifting story to read".
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Riaboff, Alexander (Von Hardesty, editor),
GATCHINA DAYS:
Reminiscences of a Russian Pilot. .
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket.
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1986).
Maps on end pages, numerous photographs throughout, bibliography,
183 pages.
~~
"Riaboff completed this slim memoir in 1980, six decades after the events he describes. Perhaps this time lapse explains the rather dry, detached style and the general lack of immediacy. Yet he has many first-hand observations to offer concerning the perils of early aviation, his adventures in the Red Air Fleet soon after the Russian Revolution, and his subsequent defection to the counterrevolutionary Whites. The volume concludes with his arrival on American soil in 1923. Numerous photographs complement the text. The editor's notes and commentary provide coherence and continuity."
Library Journal.
~~ OUT OF PRINT.
$35.00
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