This account follows the combat squadrons on the Western Front during World War I. Alan Clark shows how the idealistic young men who joined the air army in the early months of the war evolved into the embittered but courageous aces of 1916 and 1917 - little-known men who became celebrities such as Manfred von Richtofen, Albert Ball and Charles Nungesser. These aces performed acts of incredible bravery and skill, but almost all lost their lives or their sanity. Describing the frailty of the aeroplanes, the incendiary bullets of the enemy and the banning of parachutes which were deemed "likely to lower morale", Clark criticises the short-sightedness of the high commands who failed to recognise the significance of the aerial contribution to the war and sent men to their deaths in inadequate and ill-designed planes.

Evaluates the work of Jagdgeschwader 1, the Red Baron's revolutionary unit, and shows how Richthofen and colleagues tested new aircraft and tactics "on the hoof" as the air war developed over the battlefields of World War One.

Just beyond that beckoning "haze", Captain Bogart Rogers and his fellow pilots flew into enemy territory to fight the world's first air war. Suffused with the romance of flight and the harsh realities of aerial combat, Rogers's letters to his fiancee, Isabelle Young, vividly detail his wartime experiences against a lethal and elusive opponent exemplified by the likes of Baron von Richthofen's Flying Circus. The son of controversial Los Angeles attorney Earl Rogers ("the greatest jury lawyer of his time", claimed Clarence Darrow) and brother to pioneering Hearst journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns, Bogart made his mark in the Great War. Of the three hundred-plus Americans who joined the British air corps in 1917, only Rogers and two dozen other volunteers became "aces" by shooting down five or more German planes. He himself claimed six "kills" in fighting during the Second Battle of the Marne, the Somme Offensive, Cambrai, Ypres-Lys and six other major engagements. Rogers also had a definite flair for writing, one that launched his postwar career as a journalist and screenwriter in Hollywood. The letters in this volume are a striking testament to that skill. Lucid, reflective, highly articulate, and touched with flashes of humour, they illuminate the challenges of aviation training, daily life at the aerodromes, the liberating wonders of flight, and the sobering truths of a devastating war. They also reflect Rogers's constant longing for his future bride "Izzy" (who celebrates her 99th birthday in 1996).

The most audacious bombing raid in history is explained in detail within this text. It includes the complex design and testing of Barnes Wallis' theories, including dummy runs across English and Scottish lakes and lochs.

The gliderman's role was doubly dangerous. The flimsy tubular steel or plywood craft in which they crashed into combat were as hazardous as battle itself. The dangers were concealed from the young men who would drop into Hitler's Europe in their "flying coffins", but they would have gone anyway. Their story is well told here by the son of one of their number, with the assistance of many surviving vets. Their recollections are the heart of this well illustrated tribute to American courage and determination.

Authors Notes: This book is of interest to serious historians of World War 2, as well as to those who know of Peter Riedel as a champion pilot of sporting sailplanes in the nineteen thirties. It explains how the German government in Berlin obtained accurate information about the growth of the USA aircraft industry over the period 1937 until the declaration of war by Germany on the USA, after the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941. Peter Riedel, whose story is told here, did not consider himself a Nazi but believed he had a patriotic duty to serve Germany. He was invited to take the post of adviser to the German Military Attache in Washington DC, accepted, and in his official position during the critical period 1938 - 41, legally collected highly accurate data from openly published sources, and passed it to Berlin. (The famous pilot Lindbergh is sometimes blamed for the accuracy of the information reaching the German Air Ministry at this time.)

This is the Book of the BBC TV Series. Taking the reader on a journey from the decks of ice-bound destroyers to the cockpits of burning fighter-planes, and through cities devastated by the Blitz, this volume recreates the tragedy, terror and the triumph of the Battle of Britain.

The B-17 Flying Fortress was a major factor in the success of the Allied war against Germany. It was the epitome of a challenge faced, fought and won, a powerful aircraft that achieved celebrity status adn retained it through the war, operating extensively with the US 8th Air Force from bases throughout East Anglia. The book details the design and production of the bomber, its techical make-up and subsequent modifications, and includes a summary of the war history of every B-17 operational during the conflict.

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