Diary of a WWI Pilot PDF Download

Author: Harvey Conover
Publisher: Conover-Patterson Publishers
ISBN: 9780965307130
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Author: Elliott White Springs
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1473879612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
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 In his copy, Fulford made numerous handwritten annotations and stuck in a number of previously unpublished photographs all of which have been faithfully reproduced.

Author: John MacGavock Grider
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Air pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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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.

Author: James McCudden
Publisher: Casemate / Greenhill
ISBN: 193514975X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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The day-to-day insights of a brilliantly daring World War I ace that only ends with his death at the age of 23 . . . James McCudden was an outstanding British fighter ace of World War I, whose daring exploits earned him a tremendous reputation and, ultimately, an untimely end. Here, in this unique and gripping firsthand account, he brings to life some of aviation history’s most dramatic episodes in a memoir completed at the age of twenty-three, just days before his tragic death. During his time in France with the Royal Flying Corps from 1914 to 1918, McCudden rose from mechanic to pilot and flight commander. Following his first kill in September 1916, McCudden shot down a total of fifty-seven enemy planes, including a remarkable three in a single minute in January 1918. A dashing patrol leader, he combined courage, loyalty, and judgment, studying the habits and psychology of enemy pilots and stalking them with patience and tenacity. Written with modesty and frankness, yet acutely perceptive, Flying Fury is both a valuable insight into the world of early aviation and a powerful account of courage and survival above the mud and trenches of Flanders. Fighter ace James McCudden died in July 1918, after engine failure caused his plane to crash just four months before the end of World War I. His success as one of Britain’s deadliest pilots earned him the Victoria Cross.

Author: David S. Ingalls
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821444387
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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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.

Author: Clive Semple
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750967102
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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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.

Author: Elliott White Springs
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611170405
Category : Fighter pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Ranked among the top five American flying aces of World War I, Elliot White Springs (1896-1959) was credited with shooting down twelve enemy aircraft during his tour in France. In the postwar years, he was a prolific writer whose nine books include War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator, a classic air combat narrative. After his father's death in 1931, Springs inherited Springs Mills and quickly became one of South Carolina's most innovative and successful textile mill owners. Edited by David K. Vaughan, this engaging collection of Springs's wartime correspondence follows the derring-do of an accomplished World War I fighter pilot before he became one of the best-known tycoons in modern South Carolina history. Following enlistment at Princeton University, Springs was sent to England, where he trained with the Royal Flying Corps and joined the prestigious British 85 Squadron, commanded by Canadian ace William "Billy" Bishop. Springs had earned four kills before being wounded in a crash landing in June 1918. On return to duty he transferred to the 148th Aero Squadron of the U.S. Army, where he remained for the next four months. By the end of the war, Springs had amassed eight more kills and was awarded the British Distinguished Flying Cross and the American Distinguished Service Cross. Because of his unique career as a pilot in both British and American flying squadrons, Springs was able to offer especially colorful descriptions of his flight training and aerial combat experiences from both perspectives. Grouped into sections according to his training and combat assignments, Springs's letters from his combat years are rife with the wit, bravado, and fatalism of a young aviator deeply enthralled with the wartime culture of England and France. His detailed accounts of dogfights bring readers into the action with all the vigor and danger of the era. In contextualizing this correspondence, Vaughan explores Springs's complex relationships with his father and young stepmother on the home front and maps the connections between Springs's firsthand experiences and his subsequent literary endeavors. This collection highlights the thrills, tactics, and technical aspects of early air warfare from the candid perspectives of a brave young flyer with deadly aim, unflinching nerves, and a prosperous future waiting for him back in his native South Carolina.

Author: Norman Franks
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1911621750
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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The authors of Bloody April 1917 present a new volume of facts, photos, and analysis covering aerial combat in the last days of the Great War. Fifteen months after the events of April 1917, more battles had been fought, won and lost on both sides, but now the American strength was feeding in to France with both men and material. With the mighty push on the French/American Front at St. Mihiel on September 12 and then along the Meuse-Argonne Front from the 26th, once more masses of men and aircraft were put into the air. They were opposed by no less a formidable German fighter force than had the squadrons in April 1917, although the numbers were not in their favor. Nevertheless, the German fighter pilots were able to inflict an even larger toll of British, French, and American aircraft shot down, making this the worst month for the Allied flyers during the whole of World War I—and this just a mere six weeks from the war’s bloody finale. This book analyzes the daily events throughout September with the use of lists of casualties and claims from both sides. It also contains seven detailed appendices examining the victory claims of all the air forces that fought during September 1918. Although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly who was fighting who high above the trenches, by poring over maps and carefully studying almost all the surviving records, the picture slowly begins to emerge with deadly accuracy. Black September 1918 is a profusely illustrated and essential reference piece to understanding one of the crucial months of war in the skies.

Author: P. O’Connell Pearson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1534404120
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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“A truly inspiring read.” —Booklist (starred review) “A solid account of women’s contributions as aviators during World War II.” —Kirkus Reviews In the tradition of Hidden Figures, debut author Patricia Pearson offers a beautifully written account of the remarkable but often forgotten group of female fighter pilots who answered their country’s call in its time of need during World War II. At the height of World War II, the US Army Airforce faced a desperate need for skilled pilots—but only men were allowed in military airplanes, even if the expert pilots who were training them to fly were women. Through grit and pure determination, 1,100 of these female pilots—who had to prove their worth time and time again—were finally allowed to ferry planes from factories to bases, to tow targets for live ammunition artillery training, to test repaired planes and new equipment, and more. Though the Women Airforce Service Pilots lived on military bases, trained as military pilots, wore uniforms, marched in review, and sometimes died violently in the line of duty, they were civilian employees and received less pay than men doing the same jobs and no military benefits, not even for burials. Their story is one of patriotism, the power of positive attitudes, the love of flying, and the willingness to serve others with no concern for personal gain.

Author: V.M. Yeates
Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
ISBN: 1908117990
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Experience the chilling combat of World War I from inside an early biplane in this classic novel, by a pilot who lived through the war himself. France, 1914. The war on the land is taking to the skies . . . Pilot Tom Cundall is ready to take on the enemy in his trusty Camel fighter plane. But as he sees more and more planes shot down in flames, he begins to question the war, and what, or who, he is fighting for. There is no bitter snarl nor self-pity in this classic novel about the air war of 1914-1918, based very largely on the author’s experiences. Combat, loneliness, fatigue, fear, comradeship, women, excitement—they all are part of a brilliantly told story of war and courage by one of the most valiant pilots of the then Royal Flying Corps. Praise for Winged Victory “The greatest novel of war in the air.” —The Daily Mail (UK) ‘Beautifully written with a poet’s eye as well as a pilot’s eye.” —Evening Echo (UK) “Not only one of the best war books . . . but as a transcription of reality, faithful and sustained in its author’s purpose of re-creating the past life he knew, it is unique.” —Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter