Camel Combat Ace

Camel Combat Ace

Author: Barry M. Marsden

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2016-06-30

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 1473866863

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A thrilling account of a World War I airman’s service in the skies over the trenches: “Well detailed and illustrated. . . . highly recommended.” —Over the Front This book follows the First World War career of Captain (later wing commander) Edwin Swale, CBE DFC and bar, who served with 210 Squadron RAF, piloting Sopwith Camel scouts between March and October 1918. During this timeframe, he destroyed seventeen enemy aircraft, the majority being the formidable Fokker DV11. He undertook a series of perilous operations, including patrols, bombing and strafing missions, and bomber escorts. After the cessation of hostilities, he continued his flying career by piloting gliders over his native Derbyshire. He rejoined the RAF during the Second World War, and ended the conflict as an intelligence officer in charge of Ultra operations with the 2nd TAF. His legacy continued with his son Duncan, who also served in the RAF during the Second World War, flying low-level intruder operations in de Havilland Mosquitoes and earning a DFC and a US DFC—and he also left his mark on his native Chesterfield, where he served as mayor, among other prominent positions. This is his story, told in full and thrilling detail.


Camel Pilot Supreme

Camel Pilot Supreme

Author: Annette Carson

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2019-08-15

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 1526752689

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“Annette Carson has done a wonderful job of chronicling Armstrong’s life, flight training and ultimate recognition as the undisputed master of aerobatics.” —Over the Front Initially forbidden as foolhardy, stunt flying soon became a paramount method of survival in the life and death mêlées of dogfighting. But pilots still delighted in the joy and exuberance of aerobatting for its own sake, and they recognized a master of that very special skill in young D’Urban Victor Armstrong, whose displays were nothing short of electrifying. Fluid and dramatic, performed with flair at ultra-low level, his exhibitions left spectators shaking their heads in disbelief. Until this book, little was known about Armstrong’s wartime experiences, and even less about his South African background. His great value to the authorities lay in his superb handling of the Sopwith Camel, which upon its introduction had taken a heavy toll in fatal trainee accidents. While still on active service, Armstrong was sent around the units providing vivid proof that, properly handled, the stubby little fighter delivered the key to combat success: unrivaled maneuverability. His resultant fame eclipsed his other distinguished role in pioneering night flying and night fighting, an equally vital skill he was also detailed to demonstrate around the squadrons. In this “superb biography,” you will find yourself in the cockpit of the F.1 Camel and become acquainted with its rotary engine (Stand To!). You will meet many leading names including Billy Bishop, Cecil Lewis, Norman Macmillan, Robert Smith Barry, and the harum-scarum Three Musketeers from War Birds. Armstrong takes his place alongside them as one of the legendary figures of the first great aerial war.


War Bird Ace

War Bird Ace

Author: Jack Stokes Ballard

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2007-02-06

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781585445547

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Capt. Field E. Kindley, with the famous Eddie Rickenbacker, was one of America’s foremost World War I flying aces. Like Rickenbacker’s, Kindley’s story is one of fierce dogfights, daring aerial feats, and numerous brushes with death. Yet unlike Rickenbacker’s, Kindley’s story has not been fully told until now. Field Kindley gained experience with the RAF before providing leadership for the U.S. Air Service. Kindley was the fourth-ranking American air ace; his exploits earned him a Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster from the United States and a Distinguished Flying Cross from the British government. In February 1920, during a practice drill Kindley led, some enlisted men unwittingly entered the bombing target area. “Buzzing” the troops to warn them off the field, Kindley somehow lost control of his plane and died in the ensuing crash. Using arduously gathered primary materials and accounts of Great War aces, Jack Ballard tells the story of this little-known hero from the glory days of aerial warfare. Through this tale, an era and a daring flyer live again.


Dolphin and Snipe Aces of World War 1

Dolphin and Snipe Aces of World War 1

Author: Norman Franks

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-11-20

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1782006648

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This book focuses on the combat careers of the last of the famous Sopwith fighters to enter service during World War 1, the Dolphin and the Snipe, both of which were built on the strong scouting heritage of the Pup and Camel. The Dolphin featured the unique negative-staggered biplane wing arrangement, which provided the pilot with the best possible tactical view forward for seeking out his enemy. Used extensively on the Western Front, the Dolphin proved very effective in combat, with a substantial number of British aces scoring kills with the fighter. The Snipe was built as the successor of the highly successful Camel, and entered service with the fledgling Royal Air Force in the summer of 1918. As Norman Franks explores in this illustrated volume, although seeing just a few months of action before the Armistice, the Snipe nevertheless proved its superiority over virtually all other fighters.


Racing Ace

Racing Ace

Author: Julian Lewis

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2011-06-13

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 1844684105

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Samuel Kink Kinkead won two DSCs with the Royal Naval Air Service, two DFC with the fledgling RAF and the DSO in Russia.A brilliant pilot, postwar he was a long range aviation pioneer and leading racing ace selected for the international Schneider Trophy in Venice in 1927. Tragically, he was killed in 1928 when he was only 31 during his attempt to shatter the World Air Speed record. He is honored by several memorials, at Cranwell, the RAF Club in Piccadilly, at Fawley and a permanent exhibition in the Kinkead Room at Calshot from where he set out on his final flight.Julian Lewis MP has pieced together Kinks extraordinary story of achievement during his short but eventful and glamorous life. A fascinating account of flying derring-do in war and peace.


The Camel Drivers

The Camel Drivers

Author: Otis Lowell Reed

Publisher: Schiffer Military History

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 9780764300714

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The 17th Aero Squadron flew Sopwith Camels under British command along the Western Front during the summer of 1918. This definitive work on the 17th Aero Squadron in World War I is drawn from a wide range of official and personal sources, including original squadron records (found in an attic!), numerous interviews, letters written home, and half a dozen diaries - including one kept by a German pilot flying in opposition.


Winged Victory

Winged Victory

Author: V.M. Yeates

Publisher: Grub Street Publishing

Published: 2004-05-19

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1908117990

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Experience the chilling combat of World War I from inside an early biplane in this classic novel, by a pilot who lived through the war himself. France, 1914. The war on the land is taking to the skies . . . Pilot Tom Cundall is ready to take on the enemy in his trusty Camel fighter plane. But as he sees more and more planes shot down in flames, he begins to question the war, and what, or who, he is fighting for. There is no bitter snarl nor self-pity in this classic novel about the air war of 1914-1918, based very largely on the author’s experiences. Combat, loneliness, fatigue, fear, comradeship, women, excitement—they all are part of a brilliantly told story of war and courage by one of the most valiant pilots of the then Royal Flying Corps. Praise for Winged Victory “The greatest novel of war in the air.” —The Daily Mail (UK) ‘Beautifully written with a poet’s eye as well as a pilot’s eye.” —Evening Echo (UK) “Not only one of the best war books . . . but as a transcription of reality, faithful and sustained in its author’s purpose of re-creating the past life he knew, it is unique.” —Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter


Sopwith Camel

Sopwith Camel

Author: Jon Guttman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-10-20

Total Pages: 67

ISBN-13: 1780961774

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A definitive technical guide to the Sopwith Camel, featuring illustrations and profiles. An icon of World War I aerial combat, the Sopwith Camel was a superb dogfighter in the hands of a pilot who could master its vicious idiosyncrasies. The first British fighter to be armed with twin machine guns, the Camel packed a considerable punch and was highly successful, notching up a considerable number of aerial victories. The Camel was a remarkable aircraft, and one that could perform in a variety of roles, including as a ground strafer, a night fighter and a carrier-based fighter. Alongside stunning illustrations, Jon Guttman charts how, as newer, higher performance aircraft types were introduced and began to eclipse it, the dominance of the Camel declined and losses mounted. Nevertheless, Camels appeared over battlefields throughout the war and beyond, notably in the Russian Civil War.


Flying Fury

Flying Fury

Author: James McCudden

Publisher: Casemate / Greenhill

Published: 2009-10-19

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 193514975X

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The day-to-day insights of a brilliantly daring World War I ace that only ends with his death at the age of 23 . . . James McCudden was an outstanding British fighter ace of World War I, whose daring exploits earned him a tremendous reputation and, ultimately, an untimely end. Here, in this unique and gripping firsthand account, he brings to life some of aviation history’s most dramatic episodes in a memoir completed at the age of twenty-three, just days before his tragic death. During his time in France with the Royal Flying Corps from 1914 to 1918, McCudden rose from mechanic to pilot and flight commander. Following his first kill in September 1916, McCudden shot down a total of fifty-seven enemy planes, including a remarkable three in a single minute in January 1918. A dashing patrol leader, he combined courage, loyalty, and judgment, studying the habits and psychology of enemy pilots and stalking them with patience and tenacity. Written with modesty and frankness, yet acutely perceptive, Flying Fury is both a valuable insight into the world of early aviation and a powerful account of courage and survival above the mud and trenches of Flanders. Fighter ace James McCudden died in July 1918, after engine failure caused his plane to crash just four months before the end of World War I. His success as one of Britain’s deadliest pilots earned him the Victoria Cross.