Samoloty (1 WŚ) - Francja: książki - Armée de l'Air

Despite being the cradle of aviation, at the beginning of the Great War, France had access to only a few dozen military aircraft, with a staff who didn't quite know what to do with them.
However, during the course of the conflict, the embryonic air force, dedicated to the creation of reconnaissance and bombing missions, evolved like wildfire to the point that by the Armistice of 11 November 1918, French military aviation had become one of the world's most powerful as a result of the construction of 10,000 aircraft spread throughout nearly 300 squadrons.

Having become the first nation equipped with an air force, the French aviation industry in its infancy before the war, had been able to produce in four years 50,000 aircraft, many of which would go on to support a number of her allies, including Britain, Russia and especially the United States.

In this richly illustrated book Vital Ferry describes the development of the French military aviation between 1914 and 1918. Complete with technical data and profile drawings of the aircraft made and used in France during the First World War.

The French air force of the First World War developed as fast as the British and German air forces, yet its history, and the enormous contribution it made to the eventual French victory, is often forgotten.
So Ian Sumner's photographic history, which features almost 200 images, most of which have not been published before, is a fascinating and timely introduction to the subject.

The fighter pilots, who usually dominate perceptions of the war in the air, play a leading role in the story, in particular the French aces, the small group of outstanding airmen whose exploits captured the publics imagination.
Their fame, though, tends to distract attention from the ordinary unremembered airmen who formed the body of the air force throughout the war years.

Ian Sumner tells their story too, as well as describing in a sequence of memorable photographs the less well-known branches of the service the bomber and reconnaissance pilots and the variety of primitive warplanes they flew.

In comparison to their British and German counterparts, the French airmen of the Great War are not well known. Yet their aerial exploits were just as remarkable, and their contribution to the war effort on the Western Front was equally important. That is why Ian Sumner's vivid history of the men of the French air force during the war is of such value.

He tells their story using the words of the pioneering pilots and observers themselves, drawn from memoirs, diaries, letters, and contemporary newspapers, magazines and official documents.
The recollections of the airmen give an authentic portrait of their role and their wartime careers. They cover recruitment and training, reconnaissance and artillery spotting, aerial combat, ground strafing and bombing, and squadron life.

They also highlight the technical and tactical innovations made during those hectic years, as well as revealing the airmen's attitude to the enemy - and their thoughts about the ever-present threat of injury and death.