The year of reading airmindedly — XIII
There’s very little linking these three books, except perhaps that they all reflect, in very different ways, the long drawdown of British power.
There’s very little linking these three books, except perhaps that they all reflect, in very different ways, the long drawdown of British power.
There’s something for everyone here, from low-tech flying replicas to hi-tech death from the skies!
Bomber (x2) and fighters (and bombers).
Some classics (?) here: airports, biography, bombing.
Today we’re looking at the three Ps: (defence) policy, prisoners (of war), and (MM.) Pilâtre (and d’Arlandes, the first aeronauts, along with early ballooning more generally). Okay, so I need to work on my intros…
Three blitzes: the German Blitz on Britain (well, London); the British Blitz on Germany; and the robot Blitz on Britain.
This is the frontispiece illustration from John E. Gurdon, The Sky Trackers (London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1931). Gurdon was an RFC ace (28 victories, all in Brisfits) and after the war took up writing aviation adventure stories so he could discharge a bankruptcy. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, noting that ‘Columbus, setting out in a
Three aviation history books which have almost no actual flying between them.
I think this is a first for this series: three books by past Aviation Cultures presenters!
[This review was commissioned by the Michigan War Studies Review back in 2016, but for some reason never got published. As MiWSR is now, sadly, defunct, I guess there’s no harm in putting it up here on Airminded.] James Hamilton-Paterson. Marked for Death: The First War in the Air. New York: Pegasus Books, 2016. Vanishingly