War Over The Trenches: Air Power and the Western Front Campaigns 1916-1918

by E.R. Hooton

The colossal impact and effect of World War I has provided a historical watershed of which almost every aspect has been studied and revised. Yet ironically, less is known about the air war, especially over the Western Front, than the campaigns of the armies of ancient Rome, even though the technological development of the aeroplane, used as an offensive weapon between 1914-18, accelerated at a pace which has never been matched.
Few histories of World War I air power have focused upon the strategic air campaign, fewer still those based upon documentary evidence which describe the course of operations and the events which shaped them; but the events of 1916-18 have been so little studied that mythology has become accepted fact, including myths in many now famous 'standard works'. War Over The Trenches is the first internationally-researched study to portray how air power really evolved and how it was used to support armies during the massive and devastating battles on the Western Front.
The author examines how air power was deployed en masse for the first time over Verdun and its subsequent use over the Somme in the second half of 1916; how reconnaissance and measures of co-operation with artillery were developed and refined; the recovery of Allied air power during the autumn and summer of 1917 following months of attrition and in the final German offensives of 1918. This was a grim war which embraced courage and technology, whose participants were directed in the air frequently to their deaths - by little-known commanders on the ground.
This comprehensive and definitive history is based on exhaustive and extensive research conducted in archives in France, Belgium, the UK and the USA and includes German material that has never before been published. It provides the most insightful, exciting and radical reassessment of World War I air operations ever published which will be essential reading for all aviation and military historians.

336 pages, Hardcover

Published March 31, 2010

About the author

E.R. (Ted) Hooton is a retired defence journalist who worked for Moench and Jane’s before establishing his own successful newsletter. A member of the Royal United Services Institute and the British Commission for Military History since retirement he has focused upon military history.