The Lafayette Flying Corps-During the First World War PDF Download

Author: James Norman Hall
Publisher: Leonaur Limited
ISBN: 9781782823292
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
Volume one of a two volume history of the famous American volunteer squadron of the First World War There can be few who have heard of the Lafayette Flying Corps who are unaware of its history. It was, of course, comprised of the American pilots who volunteered to fight for France in the air and it included the famous Lafayette Escadrille. More than 200 American pilots completed French aviation training and 180 flew in combat. Sixty three brave Americans gave their lives for the French cause and the corps was credited with nearly 160 enemy aircraft shot down. Lafayette flyers included eleven flying aces and four winners of the Legion d' Honneur. This two volume history of the services of the Lafayette Flying Corps includes contributions by many of it members and is an essential source work on the subject for all those interested in the early history of military aviation. Volume one is a history of the corps from its formation, and includes details of the origin of the Escadrille Américaine, the Escadrille Lafayette at the front, the Lafayette Flying Corps, enlistment and early training, adventures in action, life on the front, combats and prisoners of war. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

Author: James Norman Hall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fighter pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
Describes the formation of the L.F.C. following the successes of the Escadrille Lafayette. Includes biographical sketches of L.F.C. members who served in various French escadrilles until after the U.S. entered the war in 1917.

Author: Steven A. Ruffin
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 9781612008523
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The most complete account of America's first volunteer participants in the Great War yet written, lavishly illustrated with both period photos and color then-and-now shots for a new generation of readers . .

Author: Larry W. Greenly
Publisher: NewSouth Books
ISBN: 158838280X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Presents the life of the African-American pilot who flew missions for France during World War I, experienced racial discrimination in the United States, was beaten in the Peekskill Riots of 1949 and became a member of the French Legion of Honor.

Author: Roger G. Miller
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786252473
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
Includes 29 Illustrations The advent of an American squadron, or “escadrille,” within the French air force, the Service Aeronautique, had been far from a simple process. French leaders initially held the belief, common at the time, that the war begun in 1914 would be a short one. The potential value of American volunteers fighting for France both for propaganda purposes and for helping bring the power of the New World into the war on the side of the Allies was thus irrelevant at first. By early 1915, however, the French began to accept American volunteers and assign them to escadrilles. In early 1916, the Service Aeronautique united several of these men in an elite chasse unit, which quickly earned an enviable reputation for audacity, bravery, and élan. Success of this unit, the Lafayette Escadrille, had three consequences. First, its existence encouraged a large number of Americans, far more than needed in one escadrille, to volunteer for French aviation. These individuals, identified unofficially as members of a “Lafayette Flying Corps,” served in numerous French air units. Second, the publicity surrounding the Lafayette Escadrille contributed favorable press for the Allied cause, strengthened ties between France and the U.S., and ultimately helped prepare the U.S. to participate on the Allied side of the conflict. Third, the existence of a large body of experienced American pilots provided combat veterans for the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France when the U.S. ultimately entered the war. These veterans helped instill in the U.S. Air Service the attitudes and practices of the Service Aeronautique, an infusion especially reflected in two U.S. pursuit squadrons, the 103rd Aero Squadron, made up of Lafayette Escadrille pilots, and the 94th Aero Squadron, the most famous American combat squadron of the war.

Author: James Norman Hall
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 125

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Book Description
High Adventure: A Narrative of Air Fighting in France is a gripping memoir by James Norman Hall. The book recounts Hall's experiences as an airman during World War I, offering a thrilling and candid account of aerial combat and the realities of war. His vivid storytelling and firsthand perspective make this an engaging and insightful read for those interested in aviation and military history.

Author: Stephen Lee McFarland
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.

Author: Georges Thenault
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description

Author: Samuel Hynes
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374712255
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
The vivid account of the young Americans who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I, told in their own words. The Unsubstantial Air is the gripping story of the Americans who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I. Much more than a traditional military history, it is an account of the excitement of becoming a pilot and flying in combat over the Western Front, told through the voices and words of the aviators themselves. A World War II pilot himself, the memoirist and critic Samuel Hynes revives the adventurous young men who inspired his own generation to take to the sky. By drawing on the letters sent home, diaries kept, and memoirs published in the years that followed, he brings to life their emotions, anxieties, and triumphs. They gasp in wonder at the world seen from a plane, struggle to keep their hands from freezing in open-air cockpits, party with actresses and aristocrats, rest of Voltaire’s castle, and search for their friends’ bodies on the battlefield. The young pilots’ romantic war becomes more than that—a harsh but often thrilling reality. Weaving together their testimonies, The Unsubstantial Air is a moving portrait of a generation coming of age under new and extreme circumstances. Praise for The Unsubstantial Air “Samuel Hynes is simultaneously a great gift to his complicated country and to our English language. He vividly brings to life our earliest air warriors and does so with a seemingly effortless but exhilarating prose that soars in much the same way his aviators do. Masterful.” —Ken Burns “A beautifully written evocation of the Ivy Leaguers, farm boys, and wild men who flew avions de chasse from (mainly) French airfields, based on their letters, flight diaries and memories.” —Roy Foster, The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year (2014)

Author: James Hamilton-Paterson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681771977
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
A dramatic and fascinating account of aerial combat during World War I, revealing the terrible risks taken by the men who fought and died in the world's first war in the air. Little more than ten years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war's massive overall death toll, some 50,000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations' fledgling air forces. The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, propaganda focusing on gallant air 'aces' who become national heroes. The reality was horribly different. Marked for Death debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy planes and unprotected pilots; of burning nineteen-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots blinded by the entrails of their observers. James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves and in military attitudes and strategy. By 1918 it was widely accepted that domination of the air above the battlefield was crucial to military success, a realization that would change the nature of warfare forever.