This biography of the WWI fighter pilot offers “an intimate portrait of the last recipient of the ‘Blue Max’” (Barrett Tillman). One of the most noteworthy German fighter pilots of World War I was Leutnant der Reserve Carl Degelow, whose squadron of mostly black Fokker D.VII fighters posed a formidable threat to some of Britain’s most celebrated air units on the Western Front. Black Fokker Leader, filled with new information and original photos, is based on the author’s research of significant German archival material and documentation, as well as British, French, and Belgian sources, shedding new light on this legendary ace. The biography offers previously unpublished material about Degelow and his comrades: how he was almost court-martialed; how his career was saved by Josef Jacobs; how Degelow helped Willy Rosenstein escape from Nazi Germany; and much more. Also included are new insights into men like Field Marshal Erhard Milch, Degelow’s wing commander in WWI; and V-2 rocket chief Gen. Hans Jeschonnek, a Degelow protégé in 1918.

William Avery Bishop is recognized as the British EmpireÕs highest-scoring WWI ace, credited with 72 combat victories, third-ranking behind von Richthofen and RenŽ Fonck. He scored many of his successes on his own, prevailing only by dint of personal courage, daring and superior marksmanship. This remarkable manÕs story has been detailed in many books and articles, but renowned author Peter Kilduff is adamant that so far the full truth has not been told. Famed for his evenhanded, thorough, exhaustive and forensic research, Kilduff sets out to bring new light to missions and kills so far steeped in controversy. As so many of BishopÕs victories were achieved during solo combat, all will be examined and scrutinized, drawing on German, British and Canadian archival sources, BishopÕs private correspondence, and accounts by friends and foes. Such an approach provides as complete an account as possible which also serves as a valuable reference work containing many previously unpublished images.

This novel is about the first truly modern man. His name's Bob Shairp, and he gets completely turned into data and stored on computer tape. (How modern can you get?) Actually, there are quite a few other modern characters (though none so modern as Bob) in this book. There's Wes Davis, who knows the U.S. Army is part of a Black Conspiracy. And Billy Koch, the great faith-healing evangelist who orders a robot replica of himself to share the burden of crusading. And Glen Dale, editor of Stagman magazine and, strangely enough, a virgin. And Wise Bream, god of the Utopi Indians. And others, too numerous to enumerate.

Designed in a great rush at the end of 1917 just in time to take part in the German standard fighter competition held in January/February 1918, the D VII easily walked away with first prize. As Germanys premier fighter unit, von Richthofens JG I (led by Hermann Göring in the wake of the 'Red Baron's' recent death) received the first examples of the D VII to reach the frontline in late April. Built to oppose the new generation of French SPAD XIIIs and British SE 5as and Camel fighters, the D VII was arguably the best all-round fighting scout of the Great War.

A dramatic and fascinating account of aerial combat during World War I, revealing the terrible risks taken by the men who fought and died in the world's first war in the air. Little more than ten years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war's massive overall death toll, some 50,000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations' fledgling air forces. The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, propaganda focusing on gallant air 'aces' who become national heroes. The reality was horribly different. Marked for Death debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy planes and unprotected pilots; of burning nineteen-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots blinded by the entrails of their observers. James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves and in military attitudes and strategy. By 1918 it was widely accepted that domination of the air above the battlefield was crucial to military success, a realization that would change the nature of warfare forever.