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Title: Dog-Fight: Aerial Tactics of the Aces of World War I by Norman Franks ISBN: 1-85367-551-2 Publisher: Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal Pub. Date: July, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95

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Average Customer Rating: 2.33 (3 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Doesn't Deliver
Comment: There is much of interest in this book but its' rather rambling organization and an abundance of editing errors detract from the final product. The books' focus seems to be aimed more at the grand tactical level of Squadron and Jasta organizations and formations while the explanations of plane-on-plane positioning and maneuvering never gets beyond the basics. The finer points of turning engagements and the use and development of gun sights are conspicuous by their absence while the problems of deflection shooting and bullet drop are mentioned only in passing. A further indicator as to the books focus can be found in the index, only the names of pilots are listed. As a general overview of the strategic and grand tactical considerations of the air war it 's not all that bad, but that is perhaps the most telling criticism I can make on a book purportedly dealing with aerial tactics. In short the author can't quite get the reader into the cockpit.

Rating: 2
Summary: "Aces" doesn't get 5 stars
Comment: This is what happens when someone writes too many books in the same field. While the pilot vignettes and photos are interesting, they aren't necessarily organized or relevant to the topic at hand. The text is poorly edited, inconsistent in style, and fails to make many points, much less persuasively. The first major annoyance I ran into was the interchangeable use of "interrupter" and "synchronizer" for machine gun fire, when they are technically different. After wading through aerial combat through the war, we arrive near the end and in the guise of "not learning lessons", he takes off on what is evidently a personal vendetta against Harris & British area bombing in WW2. This is more a strategic issue than tactical and is neither lead up to nor supported by previous text which by the title, intent, and content is focused on aces (fighter combat) and not the bombing campaigns in WW1. But most egregious is the skimpy "Selected Biography" and the failure to have one single footnote to the few sources given; thus there is no way to verify either the vignettes or understand the basis for the author's observations. This is nowhere more obvious when he gives the credit for shooting down the Red Baron to the Australians with little reference Cpt Brown or the decades-long controversy and absolutely no reference to the sources he considered to make his conclusion. In short the book doesn't read well, suffers from poor style and editing, and lacks scholarship.

Rating: 2
Summary: Dog-Fight
Comment: There is a great deal of interesting and valuable information in this book, but it is nearly ruined by extremely poor (or no?) editing. There are numerous, distracting typos as well as sentences that have obviously been rewritten but not had the original wording removed. Chapter subheadings are often followed by text that has little or nothing to do with the supposed subject of the section. Frequently, the author digresses into pages of information not related to the heading or even the title of the chapter! There are also very lengthy quotations from WWI flyer's diaries or action reports that, while interesting as memorabilia, tend to be redundant and add little to the narrative. Many of these sections could have been shortened to better effect. If you want a book about WWI in the air, find a used copy of Reynold's "They Fought for the Sky". You'll find it much more fun to read and less aggravating.

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