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The Friendless Sky: The Great Saga of War in the Air, 1914-1918
In 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. It was to be their first major war since Waterloo. Having already won international wars with Denmark and France, Britain was ready. Or so they thought …
For the first time in history, the British Expeditionary Force set out to cross the Channel under the air cover.
With aviation still in its infancy when the war began, with it only being five years since the first flimsy French aeroplane cross the Channel at 45 mph, the air cover provided was rather primitive. Up above the mud-soaked soldiers who fought over the devastated, trench-scarred landscape that was northern France, a new kind of war was being born.
Flimsy biplanes and triplanes wheeled and spun, engines roaring, wires screaming and guns chattering.
In the skies above the poppy-fields, men became aces and were cut down in their prime: Albert Ball, Jean Navarre. Max Immelmann and Manfred von Richtofen, the ‘Red Baron’.
They were the legendary heroes of a whole new age.
Alexander McKee was selling aviation articles to flying magazines by the age of eighteen. During the Second World War he wrote for a succession of army newspapers and later became a writer/producer for the British Forces Network.
Since 1956 he has been researching and writing books on all branches of naval, military and aviation history. He instigated the excavation of the Tudor ship Mary Rose in the seabed off Portsmouth, which he describes in King Henry VIII’s Mary Rose. In all he has written nineteen books, two of his most recent successes being the books Into the Blue and Dresden 1945.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
For the first time in history, the British Expeditionary Force set out to cross the Channel under the air cover.
With aviation still in its infancy when the war began, with it only being five years since the first flimsy French aeroplane cross the Channel at 45 mph, the air cover provided was rather primitive. Up above the mud-soaked soldiers who fought over the devastated, trench-scarred landscape that was northern France, a new kind of war was being born.
Flimsy biplanes and triplanes wheeled and spun, engines roaring, wires screaming and guns chattering.
In the skies above the poppy-fields, men became aces and were cut down in their prime: Albert Ball, Jean Navarre. Max Immelmann and Manfred von Richtofen, the ‘Red Baron’.
They were the legendary heroes of a whole new age.
Alexander McKee was selling aviation articles to flying magazines by the age of eighteen. During the Second World War he wrote for a succession of army newspapers and later became a writer/producer for the British Forces Network.
Since 1956 he has been researching and writing books on all branches of naval, military and aviation history. He instigated the excavation of the Tudor ship Mary Rose in the seabed off Portsmouth, which he describes in King Henry VIII’s Mary Rose. In all he has written nineteen books, two of his most recent successes being the books Into the Blue and Dresden 1945.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1962
147 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Alexander McKee
55 books12 followersAlexander McKee was no "yes-man", he dared to criticise many military, political, economic, media and academic icons and he always kept an open mind. He was fanatical about making his works as accurate as he possibly could. He was ever alert to plain-wrong, biased, distorted or sloppy reports and hidden agendas; wickedly delighting (the more so as a self-educated man) in criticising and exposing assertions that did not fit the evidence. Among his targets were those who tended to emphasise media-image-managment, the accumulation of personal wealth and career progression over both personal integrity and respect for other people's contributions. He gleefully highlighted all the many lapses of integrity that he found. Equally, many established experts, often highly educated people and indeed experts regarding the theoretical aspects of their disciplines, but whom he considered scandalously remiss when they complacently failed to complement such theoretical understanding with practical knowledge as a way to test their theories empirically. Consequently, some of them came in for some harsh criticism on occasion. One gets the impression from his work that some of them appeared reluctant to venture outside the academy at all; out into the "real world": let alone to mix with ordinary people. Implicitly, he urged them to converse with the fishermen, the builders, the soldiers, the doctors, the nurses, the shipwrights and the firemen to glean practical understanding from these practical people, who had to be willing and able to carry out the ultimate tests on their theories to provide demonstably working solutions in order to fulfill their typical working roles. Then he urges such experts in the theory to re-test their theories against the empirically derived knowledge gleaned from their excursions among the working classes, and to do so conjunction with their own senses, out in the "real world": rather than limiting themselves and risking their reputations on the results of thought experiments alone. He dug deep into eye-witness testimonies and spent countless hours searching libraries and museums for the documentary evidence surrounding each his-story. One may find this slightly comical that viewed against the background of established caricaturisations, when the elevated "pillars of wisdom", went "building castles in the air" around about the "ivory towers" and he found strong contradictory "real world" evidence he often lambasted them mercilessly, although it does sometimes seem to be overdone. In contrast, he made the point that some of the sloppy documentary historical works such as that of Sir Robert Davis, that temporarily led his own research astray (and much to his annoyance caused him to repeat untruths in public lectures) while causing the propagation of serious errors until he uncovered them, were nevertheless probably a consequence of the pressures of work, owing to the high quality of the rest of the publication.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 8, 2020
The Friendless Sky by Alexander McKee is a personalized look at aviation in the first world war. McKee was a British journalist, military historian, and diver who published nearly thirty books. Most of his books center on war and the military -- Vimy Ridge, The Bounty, Dresden and many others.
As a child I was fascinated by WWI and especially the air war. I read Rickenbacker and Ernest K Gann. Other kids were interested in F-14 Tomcat or F-111. I preferred Fokkers and Sopwiths. Far from the late 20th-century cutting edge, the planes I liked were fragile and at times seemed, and were, to be held together by wire and glue. In combat the unlike modern planes that could engage from over one hundred miles away, first world war pilots were in visual sight of each other and close enough to read the markings on the each others plane. There is also a difference in the bombing. The Iraqi highway of death was something of pride while the same situation in Turkey during WWI proved to have the opposite effect. Modern cruise missiles and drones are indiscriminate in death. WWI bomber pilots, although very inefficient in causing damage, disliked bombing cities. One pilot even remarked, “What happens if I kill an old woman.”
The pilots on both sides respected each other and there are many instances where an enemy pilot would visit their opponents aerodromes and drop messages, news of shot down pilots, or even wreaths on the death of a respected pilot. Death surrounded pilots not only from air combat. Their planes could fall apart when pushed too hard. Ground fire could easily take down a plane. Easy targets became traps for pilots wanting to up their count. Death was always close but it had a glory the trenches could never claim.
Unlike many WWI air war books, McKee includes the history of bombing. From the observer dropping handheld bombs over the side of observed planes to the multiple zeppelin bombings of Great Britain. Bombing raids were not accurate and many times did little damage. A German bombing run on Paris released propaganda and bombs. The bombs killed a cow. German zeppelin raids were more successful in England. They were not very accurate and sometimes missed the target city entirely. The Gotha bombers may have appeared more threatening than zeppelins but were easier targets for air defenses.
McKee uses first-hand source material from pilots in the war as well as other sources. The effect is to give a personal look at the air war complete with individual pilot's stories. The Friendless Sky does not read like history. It has a warmer, friendlier tone to it despite the subject matter. War on a whole is horror. It is run by governments their militaries. The armies, however, are made up of individuals, and the individuals have little to gain by putting themselves into the slaughter. Their stories bring a truthfulness to the propaganda of war.
As a child I was fascinated by WWI and especially the air war. I read Rickenbacker and Ernest K Gann. Other kids were interested in F-14 Tomcat or F-111. I preferred Fokkers and Sopwiths. Far from the late 20th-century cutting edge, the planes I liked were fragile and at times seemed, and were, to be held together by wire and glue. In combat the unlike modern planes that could engage from over one hundred miles away, first world war pilots were in visual sight of each other and close enough to read the markings on the each others plane. There is also a difference in the bombing. The Iraqi highway of death was something of pride while the same situation in Turkey during WWI proved to have the opposite effect. Modern cruise missiles and drones are indiscriminate in death. WWI bomber pilots, although very inefficient in causing damage, disliked bombing cities. One pilot even remarked, “What happens if I kill an old woman.”
The pilots on both sides respected each other and there are many instances where an enemy pilot would visit their opponents aerodromes and drop messages, news of shot down pilots, or even wreaths on the death of a respected pilot. Death surrounded pilots not only from air combat. Their planes could fall apart when pushed too hard. Ground fire could easily take down a plane. Easy targets became traps for pilots wanting to up their count. Death was always close but it had a glory the trenches could never claim.
Unlike many WWI air war books, McKee includes the history of bombing. From the observer dropping handheld bombs over the side of observed planes to the multiple zeppelin bombings of Great Britain. Bombing raids were not accurate and many times did little damage. A German bombing run on Paris released propaganda and bombs. The bombs killed a cow. German zeppelin raids were more successful in England. They were not very accurate and sometimes missed the target city entirely. The Gotha bombers may have appeared more threatening than zeppelins but were easier targets for air defenses.
McKee uses first-hand source material from pilots in the war as well as other sources. The effect is to give a personal look at the air war complete with individual pilot's stories. The Friendless Sky does not read like history. It has a warmer, friendlier tone to it despite the subject matter. War on a whole is horror. It is run by governments their militaries. The armies, however, are made up of individuals, and the individuals have little to gain by putting themselves into the slaughter. Their stories bring a truthfulness to the propaganda of war.
May 4, 2020
This is a short and extremely readable book about the use of aircraft in World War I, 1914-1918. It covers a great deal of ground in only 272 pages, and although it's not necessary to know anything about the subject beforehand, the reader who knows even a little about the aircraft and the pilots of the time will get the most out of it. It's not really necessary to know anything about the wider details of the war, as The Friendless Sky is tightly focused on the pilots, the aircraft, and the missions they flew.
March 23, 2018
The Finest Account of WWI Air Warfare.
At times poignant, at others savagely ironic this book is highly readable even to those not fascinated by the subject. It is rare for historical accounts like this to be so superbly written. A masterpiece. I first read it decades ago. It was well worth revisiting.
At times poignant, at others savagely ironic this book is highly readable even to those not fascinated by the subject. It is rare for historical accounts like this to be so superbly written. A masterpiece. I first read it decades ago. It was well worth revisiting.
March 29, 2018
Very interesting
This is fantastic. I enjoyed the authors writing style. I found it fun to have google images open whilst reading to look at the planes. I learnt many things about ww1. Recommended reading. Would interest steam punk fans.
This is fantastic. I enjoyed the authors writing style. I found it fun to have google images open whilst reading to look at the planes. I learnt many things about ww1. Recommended reading. Would interest steam punk fans.
June 26, 2019
A detailed account of the genesis of air warfare
Well researched and detailed narrative of WW1 air warfare. It makes me realise exactly how good a writer W. E. Johns was, and how well the Biggles stories reflected the reality.
Well researched and detailed narrative of WW1 air warfare. It makes me realise exactly how good a writer W. E. Johns was, and how well the Biggles stories reflected the reality.
June 14, 2018
War in the ait
A must for students of WW1. A thorough and illuminating account of the fast paced technological and tactical advances of the art and science of aerial warfare.
A must for students of WW1. A thorough and illuminating account of the fast paced technological and tactical advances of the art and science of aerial warfare.
September 15, 2020
Short readable book about the progress of aviation in World War I. A little disjointed in parts but a great starter book on the subject.
November 10, 2020
A short and well worthwhile overview of the 1914-18 air war. The advances in technology are well described as is the human side of the conflict.
December 17, 2025
Very good reading
Very informative. Well written. Easy to read. Gives a good insight into the lives the first airmen at war and their machines.
Very informative. Well written. Easy to read. Gives a good insight into the lives the first airmen at war and their machines.
December 28, 2023
It was tough to read this on the back of some excellent WWI aviation books I read earlier this year. Not that there's anything wrong with this book, it's just a bit shorter and somewhat lacking in the detailed information and the excitement of a couple of the other WWI aviation books.
Even still, I greatly enjoyed this book, even though it took nearly 2 months to get through as my secondary read. It was a fascinating read...especially considering that 7 or 8 months ago, I didn't even realize airplanes were used in WWI. I mean, wooden airplanes with fabric wings and machine guns that fire through the propeller? I never knew!
Even still, I greatly enjoyed this book, even though it took nearly 2 months to get through as my secondary read. It was a fascinating read...especially considering that 7 or 8 months ago, I didn't even realize airplanes were used in WWI. I mean, wooden airplanes with fabric wings and machine guns that fire through the propeller? I never knew!
May 26, 2022
British bias
After reading this Book it is obvious the writer has disdain for Americans. He stated in one section the only war the brits lost was Englishman against Englishman. Please! You were fighting Americans. We had no use for the British.
After reading this Book it is obvious the writer has disdain for Americans. He stated in one section the only war the brits lost was Englishman against Englishman. Please! You were fighting Americans. We had no use for the British.
December 8, 2023
Anecdotal stories of WWI air combat
Very interesting descriptions of individual sorties. Personal recollections not found elsewhere. Good for anyone interested in military history, WWI history, and aviation history.
Very interesting descriptions of individual sorties. Personal recollections not found elsewhere. Good for anyone interested in military history, WWI history, and aviation history.
August 16, 2020
A fascinating book giving data about the aviation of WW I and who is who.
December 12, 2024
Endlessly fascinating and horrifying at the same time.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews