Books on Air Combat?

[Badboy]

Hi,

I'm trying to discover the title of a book referred to by Johnnie Johnson in
the Story of Air Fighting. Those of you with a copy of Shaw will recall that
Johnson is quoted while describing his effort as a young WWI pilot to obtain
information on fighter tactics. The quote in Shaw reads:

"We wanted a man of the calibre of Boelcke, or Mannock or Molders or Malan
to explain the unknown and to clear our confused and apprehensive minds; but
on this occasion the right senior officer was not present".

However he then goes on to say:

"Some one told us that an excellent novel, published at ten shillings after
the First War, was well worth reading because it contained all the lessons
of air fighting. So we sent a pilot to London to search the second hand
bookstalls and get half a dozen copies".

However he doesn't mention the title or the author.

Anyone have any idea what book Johnson may have been referring to?

Badboy

[Baddawg]

Badboy ,the foreword in  J.E.Johnsons Book "Wing Leader"
is written  by Douglas Bader where he makes a similar referal
"I like your style which is in the tradition of our famous predecessors of World WarI, Ball, McCudden, Mannock and Bishop. Never let it be forgotten that our generation of fighter pilots learned the basic rules of air fighting from them. When I was a cadet at Cranwell I used to read their books  time and time again and I never forgot them."

Later in the book in the chapter "Training days" Johnson complains about the lack of tactical instruction,and no referal to any reference material is mentioned  other than what Bader had stated in the foreword so maybe the referal you are mentioning lies in the writings of one of the esteemed pilots Bader mentions.

Possible leads :
 Bishop, Willaim .Winged Warfare London: Hodder & Stoughton and Lythway Press. New York : Doubleday,1918

McCudden ,James. Flying Fury London John Hamilton,1930

Milne Duncan Grinnel, Wind in the Wires. London: Hurst & Blackett. New York: Doubleday,1933.

Good luck I hope you find it please let us know if you do    



[This message has been edited by Baddawg (edited 12-14-2000).]

[bloom25]

I got looking through the bibliograpies of some of my older books on fighters.  Here's a couple books I found that may be helpful:

Recollections of an Airman by L.A. Strange, J Hamilton Ltd.  (This one is my top bet.)

Max Immelmann, Eagle of Lille by F. Immelmann, J Hamilton Ltd.

Robert Loraine by W Loraine Collins, from 1938

War Eagles by J. S. Childers Wm Heinemann from 1943

I'll add more if I can't find them.

This L.A. Strange was a WWI ace, so his book must be quite old.



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Beurling]

There was a string of commics after ww1 about the adventures of the aces.

Beurling was a reader of them. I cant rember the names but i have read they were great for tactics.

I tried looking them up one time there was a link on the michigan state university websight.

Im not sure if thats the kind of thing that would be on microfilm or what. The name of them the series is there though.

I do know there is a referal to them in the books Malta Spit and hero the Buzz Beurling story.

EYE

[Mattibaby80]

I love that guy Bader.  He's the one who fought in the BoB without any legs right?  He had metal ones to push the rudders with.  I remember that when he was shot down, they had to take his metal legs away to keep him from escaping.  Hehehe, damn you gotta have balls the size of beach balls to fly with metal legs and then try to escape on them.

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Meine schwester hat keine kartoffel salat?  Du bist eine lustige bube!!

[Ripsnort]

 

Originally posted by Mattibaby80:
I love that guy Bader.  He's the one who fought in the BoB without any legs right?  He had metal ones to push the rudders with.  I remember that when he was shot down, they had to take his metal legs away to keep him from escaping.  Hehehe, damn you gotta have balls the size of beach balls to fly with metal legs and then try to escape on them.

That's the Brits for you, stubborn, never-give-up attitude, a virtue in my eyes.

[Rickenbacker]

I thought I'd mention "Fly for your life" by Robert Stanford Tuck. Though it doesn't contain much tactics or tips, it's still a damn good book.