The First Air War

1914-1918

Lee Kennett

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN:
  9780684871202
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439105450
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Historian Lee Kennett takes on the vital task of detailing the World War I aviator in this complete overview of the first air war, that Richard P. Hallion calls, "A welcome and long overdue addition to the literature of military aviation." "The whole subject of the first air war is like some imperfectly explored country: there are areas that have been crisscrossed by several generations of historians; there are regions where only writers of dissertations and abstruse monographs have ventured, and others yet that remain terra incognita, " historian Lee Kennett tells his readers. There are very few books that explore military avition and its history to the fullest extent as Kennett has done in First Air War. The purpose of this book is to act as a complete overview on topics and histories that have previously gone unexplored. He tells of World War I fliers and their experiences "on all fronts and skillfully places them in proper context" (Edward M. Coffman, author of The Old Army ). In considerate detail, Kennett tells the full story on how a few planes became the armies of the sky.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• To the Reader
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: The Dawn of Air Power
• Chapter 2: The Eyes of the Army
• Chapter 3: The Emergence of the Bomber
• Chapter 4: The Development of Aerial Combat
• Chapter 5: Harnessing Air Power
• Chapter 6: The Machines
• Chapter 7: The Men: Selection and Training
• Chapter 8: The Men: En Escadrille
• Chapter 9: A New Breed of Heroes
• Chapter 10: The War on Other Fronts
• Chapter 11: Maritime Aviation
• Chapter 12: The Final Battles
• Chapter 13: An End and a Beginning
• Photographs
• Essay on Sources
• Endnotes
• Index
• Copyright