Flying With World War One Fighter Aces

[Jos]

Hello,

I ordered Flying with world war one Fighter Aces (Lionel Blaxland, Mick Mannock and the pilots of 40 squadron in 1917) by Peter McManus.


bol.com | Flying With World War One Fighter Aces, Peter McManus | Boeken (Engels)



Any comment on this book?


Jos

[Gregvan]

Hi Jos,

The same author has had a book entitled "Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead", about Lionel Blaxland and 40 Squadron's FE8s during Bloody April, etc - which was announced many months ago. I have ordered it from Amazon but keep getting told it's not available yet (even though it was supposed to come out in May 2008). I wonder if your book is a sequel, or perhaps even the same book under a different title?

The author, Peter McManus, apparently has access to Lionel Blaxland's five photo albums and log books - and appears to be making the most of them!

I just wish the book, or books, would get published and become available.

Greg

[Jos]

Hello Greg,

You could be right.

Here is the announcement of Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead.

bol.com | Peter McManus | Boeken (Engels)


If you read the review one thinks it belongs to Flying with World War One Fighter Aces.


Greetings,


Jos

[Southside Bucky]

Yeah, I can't make out what's going on with this this one either...Two titles, two prices, three release dates.

There's also no mention of it on the infuriatingly slow Grub Street website.

[Jos]

Hello,

Just like Greg who had been told that the book is not available, I received a message yesterday that Bol.com has canceled the order. They can't deliver the book.

Is there anybody else who has news on it's publishing??


Jos

[jastaflieger]

i just spent about 10 min trying to find this title on the pen and sword website, with no luck at all:: all very curious and certainly frustrating, do any forumites from the UK know MR McManus? perhaps we could try to reach the author directly and find out the "scoop".

[Southside Bucky]

Now available:

Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead: RFC Pilots Out-performed and Out-gunned Over the Western Front, 1917: Peter McManus, John Batchelor: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Regards.

Bucky

[jastaflieger]

This is by no means an ad for Browns books in the UK, but i have just ordered this book from them for 18.91 us dollars, which seems to be a reasonable price. I have ordered from them before and the shipping time was reasonable and the book was well-packaged.
Just thought i would share my experience with this online source if anyone is interested.
Jim

[alex_revell]

My copy of Richthofen Jadgstaffel ahead has just this minute arrived from Amazon. First impression - very hurried - it looks good, with the layout better than most Grub St efforts. However, a quibble - or rather not a quibble, a very strong complaint. There is a brief section on McCudden and it repeats the old nonsense that he was killed because he make the elementary mistake of trying to turn back after an engine failure. This was also stated by our own Norman - shame on you Norman - in his recent book on Mannock.
Not one of the eyewitnesses to the crash suggest that McCudden was trying to turn back. When I put this theory to people who knew McCudden they all stated that it was complete nonsense, that from their knowledge of his piloting skills he would never have attempted such an elementary error of judgement. One practically had apolexy when I told him of it, he was so annoyed. This is very sloppy, not to say extremely reprehensible historical writing and research. Unfortunately, to the general public, once a statement is in print it becomes a fact.
Disgusted of Cornwall.

[Kirk R. Lowry]

Bonjour Alex!

One would have thought that notions of James McCudden having turned to return to the field had been dealt with by Christopher Cole in the well considered analysis of the tragic incident published in McCudden V.C. in ... 1967 and ultimately by your self some years later in High in the Empty Blue.

Frankly (no pun intended) I am surprised that Norman Franks would return to the myth of the "turn in order to get back" that had been noted in the afterward of the McCudden autobiography as, in the introduction to the Greenhill edition of 2000 Franks notes simply "he took off, went into a steep climbing turn, had some kind of engine malfunction, clipped some trees and plunged into a wood at the edge of the airfield".

All that stated, I am looking forward to obtaining Richthofen Jagdstaffel Ahead ...

Always Good To Read Comments From You Alex!
Kirk