The mysterious events of April 21, 1918, the day the legendary Red Baron met his end, have kept the world captivated for decades. There have been many theories, articles and books concerning exactly what took place but all previous accounts have been over-shadowed by this ground-breaking book. Here is the definitive answer to one of history's most compelling mysteries. Taking you straight to the site of Richthofen's final crash, leading aviation historian Norman Franks and pilot Alan Bennett dissect the evidence and expose what only eyewitnesses could see, complimented by a host of forensic and historical facts that illustrate in detail what actually occurred, when and how.

This is the captivating story of the four Raw brothers, all of whom served with the Royal Air Force. The eldest three flew during WW2 and all three died. The youngest, not old enough to see wartime flying, flew night-fighters in the post-war years, ending up flying Spitfires with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The eldest brother, John, was killed in a flying accident just as he was starting a job as a flying instructor, in 1941. Peter was a fighter pilot, flying Typhoons with 609 Squadron, winning the DFC. Sadly he was killed in action with 183 Squadron in 1944. Tony flew Hampden and Lancaster bombers, received the DFC and AFC, but was also killed in action in 1944. Their father had been a naval officer, serving mainly in destroyers in WW1, winning the DSC. He remained in the navy post war to become a commander but then became a barrister at law before his untimely death in 1932. All four boys kept up a healthy and loving correspondence with their mother, right from their time at Wellington School, until their passing. This book tells of their lives through these letters, written at a time when people wrote almost daily to each other if only a few lines. It is a touching memorial to four young men who served their country and its air force well. Sadly too, Michael, whose RAF career brought him the AFC, died of cancer in 1986, but all four left living testaments to their young lives and gallantry as RAF pilots in war and peace.

Pages: 224

Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-08-2011

Ton-up Lancs is a welcome reassessment of a study which first appeared under the 'Claims to Fame' series. Since that publication years ago, information and photographs continued to be sent to and researched and collected by the author, so much so that a complete revision was necessary, with a new 100-sortie aircraft added to the list, and with many more photographs of the aircraft and men who flew in these very special Avro Lancs. Each aircraft's history is recorded, supported by stories from aircrew that flew them, along with what happened to them once - or if - they survived. The most famous is 'Queenie' (W5868), the only one still in existence and which can be seen in the Bomber Command Hall at the RAF Museum, Hendon. She, as with some others, has some controversial accounting regarding the actual number of operations flown, which the book covers in full. Such controversies can also be explained by the detailed listing of each raid flown by each pilot and crew during 1942-1945, on sorties all over Hitler's Third Reich, Northern Italy, during support missions before and after D-Day, as well as in attacking V1 rocket launcher sites in Northern France. There are also first-hand accounts of the experience of flying on ops, supported by over 200 photographs reproduced throughout the book, many from personal albums which have not been published before.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 224

Dimensions: 194 x 252 mm

Publication Date: 20-04-2015

Even those people who know little of WWI's air war will have heard of Bloody April. After more than eighteen months of deadly stalemate on the Western Front, by April 1917 the British and French were again about to launch yet another land offensive, this time on the Arras Front.This would be the first opportunity to launch a major offensive since the winter and would require enormous support from the Royal Flying Corps and French Air Force in, hopefully, improved weather. However, the air offensive was to be countered fiercely by the new German Jagstaffeln - Jastas - that had been the brainchild of Oswald Boelcke in 1916. By the spring of 1917, the first Jasta pilots, with new improved fighters - the nimble Albatros DIIIs - were just itching to get to grips with their opponents over the Western Front. What followed was a near massacre of British and French aircraft and crews, which made April the worst month for flying casualties the war had yet seen. Here is a day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of these losses, profusely illustrated with original photographs and expertly told.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 01-04-2017

Over and Above was first published in 1919 soon after John Everard Gurdon, aged just twenty, had been invalided out of the RAF following a brief but incident-filled stint as a flyer on the Western Front. Piloting the Bristol F.2b with 22 Squadron, his first victory was on 2 April 1918 and by 13 August he had bagged his twenty-eighth. In between those dates Gurdon flew with gusto and élan, his exploits attracting the attention of such eminent fighter aces as James McCudden. Over and Above is Gurdon’s first and best book, repeatedly reprinted for two decades, variously titled Winged Warriors or Wings of Death. Billed as a novel, it is not so much that as a fictionalised account of his own service flying career, with names changed, incidents rearranged. True, it tells of ‘exciting raids over enemy lines and towns, desperate fights against fearful odds, chivalry shown to an unchivalrous foe…’ but the narrative turns darker as men become wearier, new comrades arrive and are killed, and those who remain try to hold onto meaning in increasingly unintelligible circumstances, a mirror to Gurdon’s own experiences. Written in the style of the era and by and for a class which put great store in maintaining a slangy, backslapping cheerfulness, no matter how grim things were, with chums wishing each other ‘beaucoup Huns’ before embarking on a ‘show’ in ‘beastly’ weather, this book is a classic to rank with Winged Victory by V M Yeates, and which should never have been out of print. This new edition retains exactly the original script but has been updated with an introduction by John Gurdon’s granddaughter Camilla Jane Gurdon Blakeley and an extended illustrated appendix by renowned historian Norman Franks.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 224

Dimensions: 135 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 29-06-2018

The follow-up to Bloody April 1917 continues fifteen months later into World War I. Much had happened over this period. More battles had been fought, won and lost on both sides, but now the American strength was feeding in to France with both men and material. With the mighty push on the French/American Front at St Mihiel on 12 September and then along the Meuse-Argonne Front from the 26th, once more masses of men and aircraft were put into the air. They were opposed by no less a formidable German fighter force than had the squadrons in April 1917 although the numbers were not in their favour. Nevertheless, the German fighter pilots were able to inflict an even larger toll of British, French and American aircraft shot down, making this the worst month for the Allied flyers during the whole of World War I – and this just a mere six weeks from the war’s bloody finale. As with their previous book, the authors of Black September 1918 have analysed the daily events throughout September with the use of lists of casualties and claims from both sides. The book also contains seven detailed appendices examining the victory claims of all the air forces that fought during September 1918. Although it is difficult to pin-point exactly who was fighting who high above the trenches, by pouring over maps and carefully studying almost all the surviving records, the picture of ‘who got who’ in the air slowly begins to emerge with deadly accuracy. Coinciding with the centenary of the end of World War I, Black September 1918 is a profusely illustrated and essential reference piece to understanding one of the crucial months of war in the skies.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 28-09-2018