Colin Owers has assembled a wide-ranging series of articles, starting with his look at the Fokker D.III in the Netherlands and a photo essay of the AFC’s 4 Squadron’s as it prepared to return to Australia after the war. Roberto Gentilli looks at the US Navy pilot training program at Lake Bolsena in Italy, then Colin reviews and expands on Jack Bruce’s conclusions about the true colour of British P.C. 10. The issue continues with three articles about individual pilots, Johannes Koëlle of the Imperial German Navy by Alexander Notopol, Lt. Roger Chapin of the 11th Aero Squadron by Scott Chapin and Lt. Elmer Johansen of the US Navy by John A. Andersen Jr. The issue concludes with Peter Kilduff’s Between the Bookends.
Michel Coiffard’s remarkable rise from infantryman to become one of the top French fighter aces of the war is chronicled by Chrisophe Cony. Sparsely covered in the literature, his 34 victories place him 6th on the French list of aces.
In “A Decorated Soldier” author Will Simpson surveys the combat career and legacy of Eugene Bullard, America’s first black fighter pilot.
Jon Guttman and Frank Bailey trace the combat career of the little-known French Escadrille Spa. 158. One of the few equipped with the Morane A.I monoplane in 1918, its short combat career yielded only 2 air-to-air victories.
Well known by name to most WW 1 historians, Raynal Bolling’s death – the only airmen killed in combat without having flown a single mission – has left his impressive organization achievements largely unknown. Steve Ruffin’s masterful article helps restore Bolling’s rightful place in the pantheon of architects of the US Air Service.
The issue opens with author Michael O’Neal’s study of post-war casualties at the 3rd Air Instruction Center. Steve Ruffin visits France to view the memorials to fallen American airmen, and Thomas Wildenberg examines Spenser Grey’s role in the origins of strategic bombing. Finally, Robin D. Smith views Manfred von Richthofen’s connection to Ostrowo, Poland and a possible romantic relationship there. We conclude with Charles Walthall’s Tangible Links and Peter Kilduff’s Between the Bookends.
Editor Michael O’Neal opens with author Michael O’Neal’s third article on American training casualties at Issoudun, covering the period from August 1918 to the war’s end. Tom Callen uses inscriptions in a German edition of a French philosophical book to look at the return from captivity of Heinz von Beaulieu-Marconnay and Gustav Bähren. Dr. Peter Fedders examines the battle of the Somme and the role air power (on both sides) played during the six months of the campaign. And finally Mike O’Neal reports on a letter to Charles Forschner Watson before his first solo from J. W. Porcher of the Fall Undertaking Co. of Waco Texas. The issue wraps up with Mentioned in Despatches and Between the Bookends.
