The First of the Few: Fighter Pilots of the First World War by DENIS WINTER

by Denis Winter

Existing studies of the Great War in the air fall for the most part into three categories -- technical descriptions of the machinery, narrative sketches of a few aces or chronological compilations built around accounts of spectacular action.In this new study, Denis Winter attempts to go beyond these limited approaches and to describe the war of the ordinary fighter pilot from enlistment to demobilization. Having consulted most of the published memoirs and read widely in the archives of the Public Record Office, the Imperial War Museum and the RAF Museum at Hendon, Denis Winter writes of the sort of men who became pilots, the stages by which they learnt their trade and their relationship with the machinery they manipulated. He describes the nature of their duties and analyses the technical qualities which were required for success in their execution. He studies too the mental dimension. How did the pilots think of their job? What did they think of their colleagues and their foe? What of their fears? In what way did they combat the strains of active service? He concludes by examining the unravelling after the war and the overall significance of the aerial war in which they had been participating. This new insight into the first great are combat in history suggests that it was of greater significance than has hitherto been thought, killing as many of the participants, proportionately, as the war on the ground and inflicting perhaps even more stress on those involved.

Genres: War, History, World War I, Nonfiction, Military History, Aviation

Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1982

Reviews

[Tim Pieraccini · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a comparatively short book this provides a pretty comprehensive picture of exactly what it was like to be a WWI pilot. It goes into great detail about the training, the work and the conditions they endured. Hard to imagine you'd find another book that does more to put you into those cockpits.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally speaking, the First World War was not one that lent itself to the romantic. For most of its participants, it was a war experienced in the tedium and mud of trench warfare, or in mighty warships sitting at anchor awaiting orders for the occasional sortie. Yet in the skies above the Western Front, groups of men fought a very different war, one often characterized by individual exploit and elements of chivalry that were lost in the battlefields below. In this book, Denis Winter examines the experiences of the pilots, the challenges they faced, and their efforts to cope with combat in a new medium.

Winter's book follows the same pattern as that of Death's Men: Soldiers of the Great War, his earlier work examining the lives of men who fought on the Western Front. Through memoirs, manuals, and contemporary documents, he presents the rhythms of the aviator's experience, following them from their initial recruitment in England to their deployment to France. His focus is predominantly on the men of the Royal Flying Corps; the experiences of French and German aviators are only discussed to contrast them with those of their British counterparts or to illustrate a general point. The comparison is useful in setting out the uniquely British aspects of the aviator's service, such as the often amateurish approach the British took towards training the men to fly. More often, however, Winter lets the men speak for themselves, drawing liberally from firsthand accounts to convey the daily patterns of the air war, from the dawn patrol to the work of mechanics to prepare for the next day's activities.

Winter's book makes for a nice complement to more traditional histories of air combat in the First World War. Its flaws are ones of omission, as its narrow focus on the pilots on the Western Front generally ignores the experiences of those who fought and flew in the many other theaters of the war. This is particularly regrettable given Winter's ability as a writer; the book is informative and easy to read, presenting the men's lives with a clarity and insight that would have been appreciated had it been applied to examining the challenges of air combat on other fronts. Nevertheless, Winter succeeds in providing a good study of what life was like for the pilots of the canvas biplanes that soared above the trenches of France and Belgium, one that is highly recommended for anyone seeking to learn more about them.

[TheIron Paw · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched and well written description of the life of WWI pilots. Rather than a straight chronological history, Winter structures his book by topic, which provides a rich insight into what it was like to be a fighter pilot in that era. His topics include such psychological/sociological issues as handling daily death, dealing with stress, adapting to the end of the war, as well as more mundane but interesting topics such as the experience of the ground crew, training, etc. Overall, a rich and easy to read description of the topic. My only complaint is for some reason he asserts that Mannock (England) was the top scoring British Empire pilot whereas all other sources (except the Imperial War Museum) place that honour on Billy Bishop (Canada). He provides no explanation - perhaps he relied on the Imperial War Museum's tendency to ignore "colonial" troops (It was just this year that they acknowledged Generals Currie (of Canada) and Monash (Australia) as having some contribution to the allied victory).