Hat in the Ring: The Birth of American Air Power in the Great War

by Bert Frandsen

Hat in the Ring is an assiduously researched account of America's first cadre of fighter pilots who accepted the challenge of leading the United States into a new dimension of warfare. In 1918 the 1st Pursuit Group organized and then absorbed French and British experience and technology. The U.S. pilots became a well-led, respected, and lethal force over the trenches of the Western Front.

Hat in the Ring's vivid descriptions explode old myths and shed new light on raging controversies of some of America's most interesting aviation heroes, including Eddie Rickenbacker, Billy Mitchell, Frank Luke, Benjamin Foulouis, Bert Atkinson, and Jimmy Meissner. Dozens of photographs, some rare and all historically significant, bring America's first aerial legends and their fighting machines closer to the reader. Carefully prepared maps provide graphic reference for following the action of the AEF's air campaigns.

Genres: Aviation, History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction

318 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jeffrey Machott · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book, I highly recommend this to anyone interested in aviation, military training and organization, or military history. The writer has collected information from a number of sources, including the memoirs of several of the historic figures the book centered around.

Of particular interest is the narrative covering the establishment, training, deployment, and equipment of the first American fighter squadrons. Or more accurately, the establishment, deployment, training, and equipment of those squadrons, as the first two squadrons had to deploy to Europe to complete their training due to a lack of any equipment or expertise in the field of combat aviation stateside. Related to this is the heated debate among the pilots regarding the traits needed in a successful fighter and pilot, with the debate of the Nieuport 28 either being the greatest fighter of the war or a dangerous death trap, which neatly mirrors discussion of some of the more recent aircraft employed by the US military.

[Brady · Rating 2 out of 5]

After three months of slowly chipping away, I've finally finished this book. That should quickly speak to how exciting it was.

With massive chapters roughly broken down into the different stages of training & formation of the 1st Pursuit Group as well as its offensives, it was hard to "keep at it" unless you had an hour to read at one time. While I feel like I learned some new perspectives on the air war in WWI, it came at a cost of over-information in a dryly written style. At times I felt like I was reading a term paper instead of an engaging history book. For history buffs, probably a good read, but a bit dry for anyone else.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history is incredible, the story is fascinating, and the characters larger than life… the writing is ok, organization is poor, and the authors lack of understanding of military culture is obvious anytime he tries to add his own analysis to the story.

[Gerald Egleson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but dry. More "just the facts" than expected but the occasional insight from the author was worth it.

[Ebb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dont like the way it's written; seems hard to read.