The friendless sky: the story of air combat in World War I

Book

The friendless sky: the story of air combat in World War I / Alexander McKee.

McKee, Alexander, 1918-1992 (Author).

Summary:

The "golden age" of air fighting lasted barely two years. Before 1914, only a few rash, logical spirits dared to contemplate combat in the clouds. After 1914, their energies were spent trying to devise ways and means to fight in the air with machines not designed for that purpose, and therefore totally unsuitable, so that, when enemy airmen did meet, they danced around each other like blindfolded boxers with broken thumbs. But by 1917, the machines were adequate and the methods had been found. The vicious, snarling dogfight -- the sudden blaze of hectic action -- the rocketing chaos of diving, climbing fighter planes chasing each other's tails, never holding a straight course for more than a few seconds in case anyone else should get in a fatal burst -- this legend was born in 1917, and has lasted ever since. Its salient attribute was its almost total inconsequence. - Prologue.

Record details

Physical Description: 256 pages illustrations, portraits 22 cm
Publisher: New York, Morrow, 1964 [�1962]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: "Notes on sources": pages 249-251.
Formatted Contents Note:: Prologue : Wings in the morning -- Mobilisation -- Cavalry in the clouds -- The adventurers take to the air -- A bad time for the German Air Force -- The eagle of Lille -- The Somme -- Jagdstaffel 2 -- The Escadrille Americaine -- The "Ace of Paris" -- The shadow of the bomb -- The Zeppelins come -- "Bloody April" -- The Anti-Richthofen Squadron -- The aces fall -- The mountains and the deserts -- The American eagle -- The Red Knight dies -- The silent raid -- Nine miles of dead.