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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0417.PDF
FLIGHT. MAY 1, 1981 j), -v has been told well not a few times before. The official r in the Air " has dealt very adequately with the history p development of early airships and aeroplanes. This \ ame, however, is smaller in size and cheaper in price than t official history, and, being very complete, it may be r ommended to readers who want a full record but do not c, e to pay for the official history. This book will be justified by its second volume rather ti an by its first. The volume under review now is in the nature of an introduction, and therefore one can hardly express a considered opinion about Mr. Snowden Gamble's achievement. We look forward to the appearance of the next volume which will take us into the war period, and then we shall be able to judge whether this is a really valuable book or not. " The Air Weapon." Being some Account of the Growth of British Military Aeronautics from the Beginnings in the vear 1783 until the end of the year 1929. Vol. 1. Nov. 1783— Aug. 1914. By C. F. Snowden Gamble (Oxford University Press). Obtainable from FLIGHT Office. I2s.6d.net. REAL EXCITEMENT MISSING " is the title of an exceptionally interestingand thrilling book written by Flt.-Lt. T. B. Bruce. In this book Flt.-Lt. Bruce records his adventures during the thirteen weeks when he was in Belgian territory occupied by the Germans during the war. It is a little unfortunate, perhaps, that he is so diffident and that he lets his natural modesty overcome his descriptive powers, because in so many places the reader will feel like telling him that, had he talked a little more about himself, he could have made the book so much more interesting. Even as it is, however, few readers will want to put it down before it is finished, and certainly the naturalness of his style and the unaffected way in which he tells his simple story make it delightful to read. It all started when his flight of four machines, which was on patrol, landed behind the lines in order to find out where they were. Two whose engines had kept running were soon away again, as also was one whose engine had stopped, but was started up again immediately, but Fit. Lt. Bruce's machine refused to start, and, although he enlisted the help of the peasantry to swing his propeller for him, their efforts were fruitless, and finally he burnt the machine and escaped with one of their number. For- tune certainly seems to have favoured him on many occa- sions, but the courage which he displayed when moving about in the towns amongst the German soldiers while disguised as a Belgian peasant must have been of the very highest. Recognition of this fact was shown by H.M. the King, who sent for Mr. Bruce on his return in order to hear the story first hand. " DAEDALUS." "Missing." By Fit. 'Lt. T. B. Bruce (W. Blachwood & Sons, Ltd.). Obtained from FLIGHT Offices. Price 5s. net. CANADA'S FIGHTING AIRMEN I TNLESS a writer has been himself a fighting pilot, it ^ must be a very difficult task to write an account of a fighting pilot's career. We have no information as to the part played in the War by Lieut.-Col. Drew, but we imagine from internal evidence that he was not himself a pilot. Yet he has undertaken the task of writing accounts of the fighting career of 12 distinguished Canadian pilots. Such a book, if written by one who himself knew all the points of fighting in the air, ought to be really fascinating. What was it, the layman would like to know, which made Bishop the second most successful air fighter on the Allies' side and third only to Richthofen and Fonck among the pilots of all the warring nations ? Col. Drew says that he was a very good shot, and he says the same about several others of his heroes. We quite admit the importance of marksmanship to a fighter pilot, but we are quite sure that it does not tell the whole story. Pilots who have written books, Bert Hall, for example, tell us that each successful fighter developed his own peculiar technique. Richthofen. we know, owed a great many of his victories in the earlier part of his career to the superior performance of the Albatros over that of any contemporary Allied fighter aeroplane. To this he added great skill in holding the position over the tail of his adversary and also excellent marksmanship. Some fighters trusted to one rapid dive and burst of fire, and pulled out of the fight if that did not succeed. Mannock, who was considered by those who knew him, the most deadly fighter of all, was a man who could and would take a young pilot out with him, and so manoeuvre that the novice bagged the Hun. That indicatesfa special style of fighting. If Col. Drew could have told us something about the individual fighting styles of Bishop and Barker and the other great Canadian fighters, his book would have been one of the greatest interest and value. This author, however, has no power of analysing the secrets which made for the success of his heroes. He knows that they were all brave, and that some of them were good shots, but he does not seem to know much more. In fact, he says that there was no secret about the success of these Canadians beyond good marksmanship and a consciousness of their own superiority. What we would like to know is the grounds they had for that consciousness of superiority. One does not become a superior pilot just by feeling that one is one. Without an intelligible explanation of this all-important point, a book like this becomes an almost tedious repetition of " The young Canadian aligned his sights on the leading German and shot him down in flames." That sentence is not quoted from any one page of the book, but the book is largely composed of that sentence in slightly varving forms. There are a few passages in the book which appear to reflect the indignation which was often expressed at the time that the British made less of the feats of their air fighters than was the custom among the other combatant nations. The official British point of view was that to make very much of the exploits of the fighters was to do an injustice to the pilots and observers of the reconnaissance aeroplanes, who had to do equally risky and even more important work with far less chance of winning distinctions. The men who went out day after day in R.E.8's to spot for artillery or to photograph the German lines with the full knowledge that the " Albatros " or the Fokker was sure to take a heavy toll of them, were certainly heroes not inferior in calibre to Richthofen who slew so many of them, or even to Bishop or Barker. A hero is a hero, whether the results of his work are spectacular or not and we should guard against unjust discrimination. The fighters were most heroic when they had to fly aircraft with a performance inferior to that of the German machines. Perhaps Barker would not have won the Victoria Cross if he had not been flying a " Snipe " in his final Homeric combat. Yet he would have been no less heroic if he had been flying an older type and had been killed out of hand. In many ways, however, this book is interesting. It has put on record the doings of 12 great fighter pilots, and so it well deserves a place in any librarv which deals with the war in the air. Canada's Fighting Airmen. By Li cut.-Colon el George A. Drew (Maclean Publishing Co., Ltd., Toronto). Obtainable from FLIGHT Offices, price 23.s. 'id. post free. F. A. DE V. R. ON ATLANTIC FLIGHTS 1V/IR. DIXON is not only an attractive writer ; he is becoming **•* a prolific one. He has produced two useful books about parachutes, and a more trifling one about Miss Amy Johnson. Now comes his fourth book. Very prolific writers need to guard against the danger of choosing subjects which are not quite worthy of their industry and their ability. A record of the various flights across the Atlantic by aeroplane and by airship is a subject which seems to us hardly worthy of Mr. Dixon's mettle. Because the Atlantic has been crossed a few times we cannot admit that it has been conquered. Therefore, the title of this book is hardly justified. That ocean will have been conquered when aircraft have established their power to cross it with regularity and safety, and that has not yet been accomplished. Mr. Dixon prophesies that within another 10 years there will be regular weekly air ser- vices between Europe and America, carrying mails and other light special freight. Prophecies of what will happen in the air 10 years hence are fairly safe, in that few will venture to contradict them. All we can say at the moment is that the technical indications are that if such a service does come to pass, it will probably run serious risks in the way of lack of reserve engine power and in high landing speed, and that the charge for the special freight will almost certainly be so high as to be almost prohibitive. Whatever we may feel 10 years hence, at the moment we are much more interested in seeing air services established over routes w"hich promise easier operation and better commercial prospects. But, of course, the airships may still make good, and that would alter the whole Atlantic position. The Conquest of the Atlantic by Air. By Charles Dixon (SatH- son, Low, Marston and Co., Ltd.) Obtainable from FLIGHT Office. Price 6s. we1. 385
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