The spider web: The romance of a flying-boat flight in the First World War

by P.I.X. (Pseudonym), T.D. Hallam

This is an account of the early days, during the Great War, of the service that became the Fleet Air Arm. It did not take long after hostilities commenced for the Royal Navy to appreciate the potential of an 'air force' both as an eye in the sky and as an effective method of countering enemy surface vessels and most especially German submarine activity. Endurance, speed and surprise were the essential components of the sea-plane and flying boat war. Appearing suddenly out of the sun, a surface cruising U-Boat had little time to dive to safety before destruction rained down upon it. This book contains may gripping incidents of U-Boat hunting in the 'Spider Web', a great tract of the North Sea which was the Navy flyer's patrol area and battlefield. This was a hard war fraught with dangers from mechanical breakdowns, attacks from enemy aircraft, lethal weather and anti-aircraft fire among its many perils. A riveting account of the sea and early aviation warfare

Genres: Aviation

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Squadron leader T.D. Hallam used the pseudonym P.I.X.

Reviews

[Patricia Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, this is a very interesting book about flying boat operations during World War One. It is informative, well written, and at times, fascinating.
However, the author tends to delve into fiction, first with an omniscient knowledge of the goings on aboard German submarines right before they were lost with all hands through aerial attack by the flying boats. The effect the author was striving for is unnecessary and unpleasantly incongruous.
The second detour from factual content occurs in the last chapter, which is a wholly fictive account of steam powered, metal skinned flying boats of the late 1920s (the book was published in 1919). The transition from fact to fancy is unsettling and lowers the integrity of the book, otherwise I would have happily given it a better rating.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out as a straightforward account of a fling boar flight, during WW1, based at Felixstowe, England. However the last chapter was one of pure fancy, with thoughts of a steel plane, powered by steam engine. Ah well I still enjoyed it.