Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #268092 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780753824078
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"casts fresh light on the broader canvas of the war" DAILY TELEGRAPH "a fascinating account of the rise and fall of the men who pioneered aerial combat...first-hand recollections bring the subject to life" NORTHERN ECHO "A timely book...this is a requiem for the brave men involved" BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH

About the Author
Peter Hart is the Oral Historian of the Imperial War Museum. He is the author of several highly acclaimed works on the First World War.

Customer Reviews

a good sequel to the author's bloody april
(from my amazon UK review august 2007)

The author's Bloody April (2005) was a fine historical account of the air war in the Arras sector in 1917. It showed how the romantic view of the war in the air as being fighter versus fighter was no longer true--two-thirds of the British planes in that sector were two-seaters, and the primary role was photo reconnaissance and artillery spotting, with trench-strafing, anti-balloon attacks, and bombing playing a secondary role. The fighters were used to protect the two-seaters and to prevent German photo recon and artillery spotting. The British were willing to accept very heavy losses to accomplish strategic goals.

Aces Falling shows how the air war doctrine of 1917 evolved further. Photo recon and artillery spotting are still vital, but in 1918 there was a need to help lessen the impact of the German ground offensives. Trench strafing and anti-balloon attacks played a greater role at the front, and now strategic bombing was employed against bridges, rail depots, etc, to help hinder to movement of men and supplies to the front. Airfields were also a prime bombing target. Bombing raids with 50 or more aircraft were not uncommon--but would have been unthinkable even in 1917. By 1918 the strategic doctrine was not unlike that in WW II. But bombs were small (about 112 lbs max) and bombsights nonexistent.

The role of the romantic fighter ace was disappearing. The "lone wolf" approach ceased to be effective when the wolf ran into a group of a dozen enemy fighters. If the fighter pilot remained with his squadron, a dogfight might involve two dozen or more aircraft: accidents and stray bullets were dangers that not even the most skilled of the aces could always avoid. Ground fire was becoming increasingly effective and deadly--descending to low altitude to check a downed enemy was asking for serious trouble. Many of the great aces died: strategy was replacing tactics.

Bloody April had a lot of technical detail about the aircraft and the training--this helped illustrate the mismatch in equipment between the Germans and the British, and it provided a fascinating look at how, nonetheless, the British were able to win the battle. Aces Falling has less technical detail, which is a bit disappointing, but there was much less of a mismatch in the equipment in 1918. So--read the book, and if you haven't read Bloody April, grab that as well.

Excellent!
This work is author Peter Hart's third volume concerning air warfare
during the First World War (Bloody April and Somme Success preceding).
These books are the best I have read on the subject.
Not only highly detailed with many first hand accounts from the
participants, Mr. Hart brings into context HOW the air war related to the war on the ground. This is an area overlooked by many accounts
of air combat during World War 1. Highly recommended!

WWI in the Air: 1918!
Peter Hart's latest book chronicles the the battles fought in the air and on the ground during the Great War's final year. Like his previous efforts - SOMME SUCCESS and BLOODY APRIL - Hart recreates those long ago times chiefly through using first-person narratives from the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive of oral histories supplemented by other documentation. The results is a fascinating, almost 'in-the-cockpit' view of Great War air warfare.

1918 witnessed more air combat than all previous years combined. Then too the nature of those combats was changing, air units being increasingly utilized in direct support of Allied and German offensives. The days of the 'lone wolf' ace were gone. In 1918 formations controlled by combat-experienced leaders such as 'Mick' Mannock engaged equally large German formations while below other squadrons strafed and bombed enemy trenches, flew ceaseless photo recce missions and conducted long-range bombing ops far behind enemy lines. Many aces fell during the final year, their skills dulled by combat fatigue brought on by the relentless combat that symbolized World War I warfare.

ACES FALLING duplicates the format Hart used with such success in SOMME SUCCESS: an overview of the subject punctuated by numerous first-hand aircrew narratives. Yet I did not enjoy reading ACES FALLING as much as I did SOMME SUCCESS. Truth be told, I would have given it 4 1/2 stars if that was possible.

ACES FALLING provides much greater background information on its subject than SOMME SUCCESS. That 2001 volume ran to 224 pages; ACES FALLING maxs out at 386 pages! SOMME SUCCESS was one of the best written aviation history books I've come across; a tightly-written, lean and mean chronicle of air warfare. By contrast, ACES FALLING spends a lot of verbage explaining German and Allied strategies and war aims, blow-by-blow accounts of the various 1918 offensives, etc. It's a tremendous work of scholarship but also, I felt, a bit ponderous. Then too SOMME SUCCESS placed illustrations of aircrew, aircraft, etc. on the pages describing them rather than in a separate insert as with ACES FALLING. Perhaps that is a minor point but I felt it gave a more personal edge to the aircrew narratives.

In any case, ACES FALLING will certainly stand as a first-class account of WWI's last year. A monumental work of research, Hart's book will stand as both a tribute to those long-ago airmen and an insightful chronicle of the changing nature of air and land warfare. Highly recommended.