WAR PLANES IN BATTLE DRESS: 1914-18

H.D. Hastings & Paul Parker, Jr.

VG+. Previous owner's neat signature in upper corner of titlepage; book otherwise clean. (NY: Walker & Company, 1963). First Edition. 11x15 oblong. 1/4 cloth with pictorial boards, illustrated with exceptional full-page color plates. No pagination (38 pp).

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.

The following planes are included:
~~~ The Berg D. I of Leutnant Ladislaus von Almasy
~~~ The Fokker Triplane of Leutnant Werner Voss
~~~ The Spad XIII of Captain Arthur Raymond Brooks
~~~ The Albatross D.V of Leutnant H.-J. von Hippel
~~~ The Spad VII of Capitaine Georges Guynemer
~~~ The Fokker D. VII of Vizefeldwebel Willi Gabriel
~~~ The Nieuport II of Sergeant James McConnell (Lafayette Escadrille)
~~~ The Sopwith Type 9400 of Flight Sublieutenant Charles H.S. Butterworth
~~~ (on front & back cover of book): The Albatros D.V flown by Ltn. Ludwig Hanstein of Jagdstaffel 16



From the Preface: "Some of the color plates in this volume are of the pitifully few WWI airplanes held by various museums throughout the world. Contrary to popular belief, their colors as they appear today may be the result of considerable alteration. Sunlight, dust and the daubings of paint and varnish by innocent staffmen have masked or obliterated the original hues and patterns. Nonetheless, armed with a wartime photograph or a note from a reference book, we have approached these old machines with something of the suppressed excitement an archaeologist must experience when, after long preparation, he finds himself on the verge of discovery. With the gracious cooperation of the museums we have been allowed to probe under the surface accumulations and discover what we were looking for ~~ the original warpaint of a race of sky-warriors whose like shall not be seen again.
~~~ The many thousands of airplanes of all categories and of all belligerents that suffered destruction in combat or in ignominious decay have now vanished from the earth. The task of reconstructing any of them is infinitely more difficult that working from even an altered museum specimen. The only recourse open to us has been to invoke the memories of the men intimately associated with them ~~ the pilots who flew them or the mechanics who worked on them. Thus, the remaining aircraft reproduced in this volume were chosen solely because there are those alive who still remember them.
~~~ Regarding the remembrance of complete color schemes and markings (to which most airmen paid little enough attention under pressure of fast-moving wartime events), it would be foolhardy to expect recall of details except in the most general terms. Let it be said, however, that we have been singularly blessed to find that some veterans kept journals in which just such minutiae were meticulously recorded. Then, too, a notable few did, indeed, possess phenomenal memories. All this, when marshalled together with the accumulated lore from a hundred reference sources, helped immeasurably to guide us along a difficult path..."

OUT OF PRINT. ~~~~ Scarce.

(Picture at left unavoidably cropped because book is too large for bed of scanner)

$145.00