Interesting story from Knights of the air book

[Willi Von Klugerman]

Heres a story I found in a book I have called Knights of the air.It takes place early in the war.Here it is!
"...airman of both sides again found themselves living off the open countryside.They bivouacked in haystacks,under the wings of their planes or in lean-to shelters made of broken airplane sections.They foraged for eggs and chickens,milked cows,shot rabbits and partridges,and cooked in cutoff petrol cans.As the fall weather deteriorated into wet,gutsy storms,they pegged down their palnes against the wind and the lucky ones crawled into barns to sleep,while others curled up under ponchos in their drenched cockpits.
They fought when they could.In one classic confrontation between the old chivalry and the new,a detachment of horsemen actually charged against a squadron of aircraft.A farmer in the Aisne river district northeast of Paris had informed the French cavalry that German planes had landed nearby.At 3 a.m. the cavalrymen,aproaching the landing field as quietly as possible,drew their sabers and charged.A German machinegun mounted on a guardian automobile cut down 12 of the attacking horsemen,but the rest managed to destroy a number of airplanes.

[QueenV1]

That's interesting. Who wrote that book? I'm most interested in the early days of the war...up through 1916. Cavalrymen attacking airplanes. lol Talk about taking a knife to a gunfight!

[Willi Von Klugerman]

The author is Ezra Bowen.Knights of the sky is one of a series of books about aviation called The Epic of Flight by Time-Life books.

[QueenV1]

Thank you. And the local branch of my library actually has that one!

Any other book recommendations? Anything on life on an airdrome, where the dromes were located for which campaigns, anything about administrative policy---like discharge policy of the French Air Service....things like that.

[Willi Von Klugerman]

The other books in the series that is recommended is the book about zeppelins,it has a painting of zep gunners in the book.

[QueenV1]

Danke.

I'll look for it and read it.

[TomVrille]

Originally Posted by QueenV1

That's interesting. Who wrote that book? I'm most interested in the early days of the war...up through 1916.

If you want to read a first person account of the early days of the air war, get yourself a copy of Recollections of an airman by Louis A. Strange. The mention of sleeping under the wings of aircraft in an open field sounds as if it were excerpted from Strange's book. A reasonably priced softback edition is available in the Vintage Aviation Library series from Greenhill books.

[Gregvan]

Also, if you're interested in the British version of the very early days of the war, check out James T. B. McCudden's Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps, sometimes subtitled Flying Fury. Most of us spend our time reading and re-reading the later portions of this famous and indispensable classic, but the first 17 chapters of the book provide a marvelously atmospheric portrait of the pre-war RFC (he joined in May 1913) and the war's first year.

You should be able to find this book easily on ebay, used book outlets or through interlibrary loan.

[QueenV1]

Thank you , both! I've made my notes and I'll look for those books.