James McCudden
James Thomas Byford McCudden was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
With his six British medals and one French one, McCudden received more medals for gallantry than any other airman of British nationality serving in the First World War. He was also one of the longest serving, having joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1913.
McCudden's story is all the more remarkable as he rose through the RFC ranks (from Air Mechanic to Major) during the war to become one of the most decorated and honoured soldiers of the conflict. At his death he had amassed 57 victories, making him the seventh highest scoring ace of World War I.
Tragically, he
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Lieutenant Colonel Georges Thenault (pronounced "Ten-o") was the commander of the Lafayette Escadrille - the famed branch of the French air force in World War I composed of American volunteer pilots. The Lafayette Escadrille was created before the United States gave up its neutrality, and joined France and Britain in the war against Germany. Once the United States formally entered the war, the Lafayette Escadrille was absorbed into the U.S. Army.
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V.M. Yeates
Victor Maslin Yeates was a British First World War fighter pilot who wrote what is widely regarded as one of the most realistic and moving accounts of aerial combat and the futility of war.
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"WINGED VICTORY", a semi-autobiographical novel, is widely regarded as an authentic depiction of First World War aerial combat on the Western Front. It is Yeates' only work and has never been out of print since it was first published in 1934. -
Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was German fighter pilot of aristocratic descent. Better known for his nickname the "Red Baron."
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Von Richthofen is officially credited with 80 confirmed air combat victories. He was awarded with the "Pour le Mérite" the highest Prussian military award.
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Cecil Lewis
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James Salter
James Salter (1925 - 2015) was a novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Salter grew up in New York City and was a career officer and Air Force pilot until his mid-thirties, when the success of his first novel (The Hunters, 1957) led to a fulltime writing career. Salter’s potent, lyrical prose earned him acclaim from critics, readers, and fellow novelists. His novel A Sport and a Pastime (1967) was hailed by the New York Times as “nearly perfect as any American fiction.”
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George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser is best known for his Flashman series of historical novels, purportedly written by Harry Flashman, a fictional coward and bully originally created by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days. The novels are presented as "packets" of memoirs written by the nonagenarian Flashman, who looks back on his days as a hero of the British Army during the 19th century. The series begins with Flashman, and is notable for the accuracy of the historical settings and praise from critics. P.G. Wodehouse said of Flashman, “If ever there was a time when I felt that ‘watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet’ stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman.”
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Eugenia Ginzburg
Eugenia Ginzburg (Russian: Евгения Гинзбург) was a Russian historian and writer. Soon after Eugenia Ginzburg was born into the family of a Jewish pharmacist in Moscow, her family moved to Kazan. In 1920 she entered the social sciences department of Kazan State University, later switching to pedagogy.
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She worked as a rabfak (worker's faculty) teacher, then as an assistant at the University. Shortly thereafter, she married Pavel Aksyonov, the mayor of Kazan and a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. After becoming a Communist Party member, Ginzburg continued her successful career as educator, journalist and administrator. Her oldest son, Alexei Fedorov, from her first marriage to Doctor Fedorov, was born in 1926 and died in t -
Derek Robinson
Derek Robinson is a British author best known for his military aviation novels full of black humour. He has also written several books on some of the more sordid events in the history of Bristol, his home town, as well as guides to rugby. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971 for his first novel, 'Goshawk Squadron.'
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After attending Cotham Grammar School, Robinson served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter plotter, during his National Service. He has a History degree from Cambridge University, where he attended Downing College, has worked in advertising in the UK and the US and as a broadcaster on radio and television. He was a qualified rugby referee for over thirty years and is a life member of Bristol Society of Rugby Referees. He -
Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was German fighter pilot of aristocratic descent. Better known for his nickname the "Red Baron."
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Von Richthofen is officially credited with 80 confirmed air combat victories. He was awarded with the "Pour le Mérite" the highest Prussian military award.
Richthofen was killed 21 April 1918, while flying a pursuit above North France. He got hit by a .303 bullet. -
Cecil Lewis
Cecil Arthur Lewis MC was a British fighter pilot who flew in World War I. He went on to co-found the BBC and enjoy a long career as a writer, notably of the aviation classic Sagittarius Rising (inspiration for the movie Aces High).
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Richard Rohmer
Major-General (Ret'd) Richard Heath Rohmer, OC, CMM, DFC, O.Ont, KStJ, CD, OL, QC, JD, LLD (born in 1924). Canada's most decorated citizen, an aviator, a senior lawyer (aviation law), adviser to business leaders and the Government of Ontario and is a prolific writer. Rohmer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent some of his early youth in Pasadena, California as well as in western Ontario at Windsor and Fort Erie.
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The Peterborough Examiner's lead editorial of 14 January 2009 says this: "Rohmer, one of Canada's most colourful figures of the past half-century, was a World War II fighter pilot, later a major-general in the armed forces reserve, a high-profile lawyer and a successful novelist and biographer." -
C.S. Forester
Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
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Henri Charrière
Henri Charrière was a convicted murderer chiefly known as the author of Papillon, a hugely successful memoir of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony on French Guiana.
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C.S. Lewis
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the -
Arthur Gould Lee
Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Stanley Gould Lee began his aviation career during the First World War in the Royal Flying Corps. He scored seven confirmed victories and rose to the rank of captain during the war. He continued his service in the Royal Air Force until he retired in 1946. He was also the author of several books, including the three autobiographical books below.
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V.M. Yeates
Victor Maslin Yeates was a British First World War fighter pilot who wrote what is widely regarded as one of the most realistic and moving accounts of aerial combat and the futility of war.
Buy books on Amazon
"WINGED VICTORY", a semi-autobiographical novel, is widely regarded as an authentic depiction of First World War aerial combat on the Western Front. It is Yeates' only work and has never been out of print since it was first published in 1934. -
John Bernard Pye Adams
Adams was the first British soldier during World War I to publish his memoirs of service with the 1st Battalion. “Nothing of Importance – a record of 8 months at the front with a Welsh Battalion October 1915 to June 1916” was written whilst convalescing in England having been wounded in June 1916. His was the only record to be published in book form whilst the war was still being fought. He returned to the Front in January 1917 and was mortally wounded a month later.
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William Henry Lowe Watson
He was born at 98 Victoria Street, Westminster, London SW1 and was the second son of the Rev Patrick and Mrs Watson. His father was vicar at Earlsfield in the London Borough of Wandsworth.
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He grew to be ix foot five inches tall and was recruited more or less off the street when war was declared in 1914 and was posted to France.
He was in the Signals Company attached to the 5th Division (one of the two Divisions which made up two Corps.
He rose to be a temporary major in the tank corps, was mentioned in despatches and won the DCM and DSO. His DCM was awarded for 'conspicuous gallantry and resource on numerous occasions in carrying messages under shell and line fire, especially on the Aisne and at Givenchy'.
In 1916 he married Ruth Barbara Wake, -
Eddie V. Rickenbacker
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker was an American fighter ace in World War I and Medal of Honor recipient. With 26 aerial victories, he was America's most successful fighter ace in the war. He was also a race car driver and automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters, and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the longtime head of Eastern Air Lines.
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See also: Eddie Rickenbacker and Edward Rickenbacker -
William Avery Bishop
Air Marshal William Avery "Billy" Bishop, VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED was a Canadian First World War flying ace, officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian ace in World War I.
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Billy Bishop was Canada's top fighter ace of the First World War, credited with shooting down 72 German aircraft in aerial combat over the Western Front during 1917 and 1918.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Bishop was promoted to the rank of Air Marshal of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and he served during the war as Director of the Royal Canadian Air Force and placed in charge of recruitment.
Bishop was so successful in this role that they had to turn many applicants away. He created a system for tr -
William Lawrence
Librarian note:
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
British Sergeant William Lawrence who fought in the Peninsular Campaign and at the Battle of Waterloo. -
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William Avery Bishop
Air Marshal William Avery "Billy" Bishop, VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED was a Canadian First World War flying ace, officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian ace in World War I.
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Billy Bishop was Canada's top fighter ace of the First World War, credited with shooting down 72 German aircraft in aerial combat over the Western Front during 1917 and 1918.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Bishop was promoted to the rank of Air Marshal of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and he served during the war as Director of the Royal Canadian Air Force and placed in charge of recruitment.
Bishop was so successful in this role that they had to turn many applicants away. He created a system for tr -
Aubrey Herbert
Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert (1880 – 26 September 1923) was a British diplomat, traveller, and intelligence officer associated with Albanian independence.
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William Henry Lowe Watson
He was born at 98 Victoria Street, Westminster, London SW1 and was the second son of the Rev Patrick and Mrs Watson. His father was vicar at Earlsfield in the London Borough of Wandsworth.
Buy books on Amazon
He grew to be ix foot five inches tall and was recruited more or less off the street when war was declared in 1914 and was posted to France.
He was in the Signals Company attached to the 5th Division (one of the two Divisions which made up two Corps.
He rose to be a temporary major in the tank corps, was mentioned in despatches and won the DCM and DSO. His DCM was awarded for 'conspicuous gallantry and resource on numerous occasions in carrying messages under shell and line fire, especially on the Aisne and at Givenchy'.
In 1916 he married Ruth Barbara Wake, -
William Lawrence
Librarian note:
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
British Sergeant William Lawrence who fought in the Peninsular Campaign and at the Battle of Waterloo.