No Empty Chairs: The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War

by Ian Mackersey

The empty chairs belonged, all too briefly, to the doomed young World War I airmen who failed to return from the terrifying daily aerial combats above the trenches of the Western Front. The edict of their commander-in-chief was the missing aviators were to be immediately replaced. Before the new faces could arrive, the departed men's vacant seats at the squadron dinner table were sometimes poignantly occupied by their caps and boots, placed there in a sad ritual by their surviving colleagues as they drank to their memory.

Life for most of the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps was appallingly short. If they graduated alive and unmaimed from the flying training that killed more than half of them before they reached the front line, only a few would for very long survive the daily battles they fought over the ravaged moonscape of no-man's-land. Their average life expectancy at the height of the war was measured only in weeks. Parachutes that began to save their German enemies were denied them. Fear of incarceration, and the daily spectacle of watching close colleagues die in burning aircraft, took a devastating toll on the nerves of the world's first fighter pilots. Many became mentally ill. As they waited for death, or with luck the survivable wound that would send them back to "Blighty," they poured their emotions into their diaries and streams of letters to their loved ones at home.

Drawing on these remarkable testimonies and pilots' memoirs, Ian Mackersey has brilliantly reconstructed the First Great Air War through the lives of their participants. As they waited to die, they shared their loneliness, their fears, triumphs, and squadron gossip with the families who lived in daily dread of the knock on the door that would bring the War Office telegram in its fateful green envelope.

Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction, History, World War I, Military Fiction, Military History, 20th Century

376 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2012

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alarmed at how quickly his pilots and observers were getting shot down, and the demoralising effect it was having on the remaining crews, Trenchard issued his historic order requiring each morning “a full breakfast table, with no empty chairs.” So as fast as his crews were killed or wounded, fresh young pilots with barely any training were rushed in to fill their places...

More than any other aspect of WW1, I find the air war impossible to imagine. How did those men, after just a few hours of training, go to war in flimsy, unreliable, alien contraptions which had only been invented a few years earlier?

This book is an excellent place to start trying to understand what those men thought, and how they lived and died. Ian Mackersey tells the story of the air war over the western front not as a chronological history, but through the personal histories of those involved. In doing so he discusses many of the better known aces and some who would go on to play a significant role in WW2 like Hugh Dowding and “Bomber” Harris. Although he mostly concentrates on the allies, there’s still some interesting stuff on the German Air Force. An excellent read.

[E.M. Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

WWI aviation is not a historical topic with which I am overly familiar but I was riveted by Mackersey’s account from the first page. On the technical side, he makes his in-depth knowledge and meticulous research accessible to the non-expert. The book includes numerous powerful photographs, showing this new technology in action, in addition to the men who flew it.
Mackersey’s exploration of what they went through is as unflinching as it is compassionate. The popular, romanticised depiction of the flying ace is a great untruth, an untruth which the author deftly exposes. Over two-thirds of all pilots and observers died in training accidents at flying schools. If they did survive, these terrified, traumatised young men took off daily to face frightening battles in the air. Death was usually to go down in flames, the ‘flamerinoes’, which survivors repeatedly witnessed. But they had to climb back into their planes and face it again the next day. Most only survived a number of weeks.
Mackersey digs deep into the associated psychological trauma suffered by those who flew. He presents their hell in their own words, with their diaries and letters home. We recognise today the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with accounts of men crying, stuttering, having nightmares, undergoing dramatic mood changes and drinking too much. Even Germany’s infamous Red Baron, Manfred Von Richthofen, was probably affected.
No-one can give these men back their lives. But Mackersey’s thoughtful, engaging book serves as a noble tribute. Highly recommended.
Note- I wrote this review for the Historical Novel Society and it has appeared in edited form in their journal, Historical Novels Review.(Aug 12)

[Sourojit Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceedingly well-written book about the early aviators, the knights of the sky. Aerial combat wasn't always the mano-a-mano duel so glorified in the annals of history. It was fraught with uncertainty and death always loomed and in its most terrifying form a 'flamerino'.

[Peter Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Empty Chairs Ian Mackersey

This is an interesting book that has been thoroughly researched. It goes into a lot of depth and covers almost every aspect of the air war.

It does suffer a touch from centring on the RFC to the almost exclusion of the RNAS, other theatres and the German and other experiences. In fairness, this would have made it a much bigger book, but it would have been nice to see more from these others.

[John Stieven · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to relive the "glory" (or was it the "gory") days of the WW I pilots and aircrews, this book is for you. How would you have liked to start a training program where 1/2 the people who started were dead before training ended -- and that was before you even got to the Front to face the enemy!

These men were truly remarkable and highlight the tragedy that was WWI -- both in the air and on the ground.

Highly recommend

[Soozee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, giving a voice to the many young pilots who pioneered the early air forces, struggling through incredible adversity - poor aircraft, bureaucracy and an apparent unwillingness or inability by their superiors to understand the stress they were flying under, and even to offer basic safety measures when they were available, such as parachutes.
The book uses lots of primary material - so the voices of the pilots are heard through their letters, diaries and biographies written by contemporaries. All the famous names are there, including Albert Ball and the Red Baron, but also many heroes who's names are no longer recognisable.
The book is split into sections that fall very naturally, following suitable themes and a general chronography.
Well written, very readable, it will shock and sadden the reader, but is an excellent addition to the historical record of that time and the development of air warfare.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2012, 'No Empty Chairs' purports to tell the tale of 'The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War'. This it does to some extent - it concentrates mainly on German and British Empire aviators, but nevertheless achieves a lot. Mackersey avoids perpetuating oft repeated falsehoods, and makes a real attempt to get at the truth with some terrific results. Not surprisingly, you do feel a bit stunned by the tales of colossal blood-letting, particularly where the author points out how pointless it was. An example of this the authors description of the huge death rate of inexperienced pilots, due to incompetent training which often killed them or sent them to an operational unit with a little more than 3 hours flying experience. A gripping read.

[mike allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Amazing Experience

Five stars does not give the author and his research for "No Empty Chairs" the justice he deserves.
I have read many books about the pilots and air war if WWI, but I found this one to be one of my favorites.
The detailed overview of the history of the development of the air services, the political situations between countries, individuals, commands and pilots, letters home to loved ones, puts you there, experiencing as best one can the every day life of a fighter squadron in WWI. Very moving.
One of the best book written about the subject.
Looking forward to rereading to glean more information.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great!

The author did his research for this book and it shows. The book is exactly what I had hoped it would be: a long and deep look into the lives of the aviators who fought in WWI.

Just a few months ago I didn't even realize there were planes in the first World War, so this book was quite the fascinating deep dive into aviation history during that time period. I knew the airplane had been invented (discovered?) before WWI but I had no idea things had advanced by then to having machine guns on planes.....by 1916? I had no idea!

This is the second book I've read by this author (Into the Silk being the first) and I'm sure I'll read more by him soon.

[Tom Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

Absolutely fantastic book. Well written, accessible, interesting and moving in equal measure. Would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the period

[Miles Chicken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good if you are interested in the air war of 1914-18. Would you want to be trained by someone who is afraid they will get killed during the training flight?

[Alister Base · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rather well written report on the progression of British air services during WWI, the first air war.

[John Adams]

Very good combination of detail and wider context