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Military Aviators During World War I: Cunningham, Bullard, Lytle, Richthofen, and the La Fayette Esquadrille

Author: 
Year:
Pages:140
ISBN:1-4955-0978-8
978-1-4955-0978-0
Price:$139.95
From the author's Introduction (pg.3):
"As the First World War (1914-1918) faded into history, it is remembered for its great carnage, fields of red poppies, and new technology like the airplane, that revolutionized the conflict. This is the story of some of the aviators who helped shape aerial combat in their war and wars to come. Some of these early war birds were Americans, like Eugene Bullard who joined the French Foreign Legion prior to America's entrance into the war and then flew for the French Air Corps. Other air minded Americans joined the war effort by enlisting in Canada and from there, joined the British Royal Air Corps. Some of the aviators profiled are well known such as Manfred von Richthofen, the celebrated "Red Baron," who brought down eighty Allied airplanes, becoming the Great War's most proficient killer in the sky. Others, like Alfred Cunningham, the father of Marine Corps aviation, is less known but played an important role in advancing air warfare. The final essay looks at the symbols aviators adopted to identify, inspire and bring cohesion to their particular group and the mascots who brought love and companionship if only for a little while."

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: "Out of the Blue": American Aviators in World War I: 1917-1918
Chapter 2. "First to Fly": Lieutenant Colonel Alfred A. Cunningham, USMC, and the Birth of U.S. Marine Aviation During World War I, 1912-1918
Chapter 3. "Right Stuff...Wrong Color": Eugene Jacques Bullard, the First African-American Fighter Pilot, 1895-1961
Chapter 4. 'Der Rote Teufel'- 'The Red Devil' Baron Manfred von Richthofen, 1914-1918
Chapter 5. "Soda for Our Whiskey": Symbols and Mascots of World War I Aviators, 1914-1918
Chapter 6. 'The Great War from Above': A Conclusion