Help: Best book on the life of WWI pilots

Hi!

This is my first post. Visited this awesome site MANY times, but never before posted. So here goes...

What's the best book that describes everyday life, etc. for the pilots back in 1914-1918? I checked out the books list, but I couldn't decide just by looking.

I'm NOT looking for a book that describes kill lists, basic biographies of pilots and describes different aircraft.

I AM looking for a book that describes what it was like to be a pilot during the war, particularly on the GERMAN side. Something that just describes how they lived, what they ate/drank, prepared for missions, got up in the morning, etc., etc. Something that describes the daily routine and all that. Something would answer something like, "What was it like to be in Richthofen's Flying Circus?"

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Dear Sam,
Congratulations on your first post! I've already taken the liberty to contact the jewelers in Berlin...
Here are two books that should interest you and meet your criteria:
THE CANVAS FALCONS by Stephen Longstreet (there's a bargain edition currently out by Barnes & Noble);
JAGD IN FLANDERNS HIMMEL by Karl Bodenschatz (you can purchase this at Borders; it's in english, but the title escapes me at the moment). Bodenschatz was MvR's adjutant.
VBR,
Capt. Lewis
PS You might want to also try Udet's autobiography.
PPS And get a haircut!

The English edition of Bodenschatz book is
Hunting with Richthofen,translated by Jan Hayzlett
you also might enjoy
Mother of Eagles the war diary of
Baroness von Richthofen translated by Suzanne Hayes Fischer

[Beerdrinker]

Simply go to the www.wtj.com. In the "archive" see "The Red Fighter Pilot" by MvR and "Fighting the Flying Circus" by E.Rickenbaker.

Sincerelly yours,
Pavel

[Amy]

Hi Sam:

If you ever get a hankering for what the British pilot's life in the RFC/RAF was like, I'd recommend James McCudden's Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps hands down.

Cheers,
Amy

[jado]

Hi Sam:

You might try: The Red Air Fighter
by Manfred Von Richthofen

Fighting Airmen
by Maj. Charles Biddle

The Black Cat Squadron
by Humphrey Wynn

I think you'll find all of these give you a slice of pilot life

VBR
Joe

Wow, you guys are the BEST!

Thanks so much - it really means a lot to me. I'll be sure to take you all at your word and check out as many of those titles as I can.

Look forward to conversing with you all on the boards in the future. Thanks so much for the warm welcome.

Captain Lewis - I'll get on that haircut right away, sir!

[jamo]

A book on WWI fighter pilots which I found very informative was "First of the Few: Fighter Pilots of the First World War" by Denis Winter.

Here is the official blurb on the book:

Existing studies of the Great War in the air fall for the most part into three categories - technical descriptions of the machinery, narrative sketches of a few aces or chronological compilations built around accounts of spectacular action. In this study, Denis Winter attempts to go beyond these limited approaches and to describe the war of the ordinary fighter pilot from enlistment to demobilization. Having consulted most of the published memoirs and read widely in the archives of the Public Record Office, the Imperial War Museum and the RAF museum at Hendon, Denis Winter writes of the sort of men Who became pilots, the stages by which they learnt their trade and their relationship with the machinery they manipulated. He describes the nature of their duties and analyses the technical qualities which were required for success in their execution. He studies too the mental dimension. How did the pilots think of their job? What did they think of their colleagues and their foe? What of their fears? In what way did they combat the strains of active service? He concludes by examining the unravelling after the war and the overall significance of the aerial war in which they had been participating. This new insight into the first great air combat in history suggests that it was of greater significance than has hitherto been thought, killing as many of the participants, proportionately, as the war on the ground and inflicting perhaps even more stress on those involved.

Food for thought? It is OOP but you can find second hand volumes on http://used.addall.com/

He did a similar title covering WWI infantrymen called Deaths Men and it is also a great read.

Frankly after rereading Canvas Falcons I wouldn`t touch it with a bargepole!!Try Aces by Alan Clark for more accuracy[My opinion!!]from what I have learned here it is FAR more accurate;at least he doesn`t write about fearhering a Be2c`s PROP ???

[albatros]

I second that Jamo---I cut my teeth on Winter's "The First of the Few." I still re-read it from time to time. It game me a good dose of what life was like for them.
Albatros