Just tought someone would be interested. Klick:

Dog-fight: Aerial Tactics of the Aces of WW I

Njoy

Razor

Looks like an excellent read, anyone know how I could possibly go about putting that on my nook?

Thanks for the link, but I'm not sure about the content's accuracy. For example...

As on most occasions, the Jasta chose its moment of combat — unless it were surprised by British or French aircraft — it was always the leader who made the initial assault and had first crack at the opposition, protected by the rest of his men. In this way he could concentrate on the target without worrying about an attack from behind. Once combat had been joined and the aircraft of both sides begun to dog-fight, then it was every man for himself, although invariably someone would be looking out for the leader. This is why, in general, Jastas had one or two ‘star turns’ in terms of victories and others managed only the occasional ‘kill’.

...seems more like British folklore or propaganda than the work of an historian.

Good find! Bookmarked it!

Norman Franks -- although he tends to keep reformatting much of the same information in different variations to create "new" books -- generally knows his stuff and is quite accurate.

Oh, and RoFfan, what you quoted is the way it actually was done in the German Air Service. The established aces got the additional kills while the new guys hung back and protected them. A sort of "Watch and Learn" system.

Thanks for the link!

Good book, would like to know how to save this as a .pdf or worddoc???

There's a djvu link on the almost same link:

http://scilib.narod.ru/Avia/DogFight/indexc.html (right under the cover)

There are some more books in english (the list can be found when clicking on the left upper link, which sends you to: http://scilib.narod.ru/avia.html ).

But also 'online' doesn't mean 'not under copyright'

Yes, save the relevant frame: http://scilib.narod.ru/Avia/DogFight/Dogfight.htm

as "Web page, complete" to some folder on your harddisk, then install and use Calibre to import the html book, and convert it from there to some ebook format supported by your nook (don't know as i have only a kindle: epub, mobi etc.)

ROFFan: A little later you get it from the horse's mouth. Richthofen states that the entire squadron will attack, with the leads carrying the attack and the rest providing cover. He views top cover as an act of cowardice (his words - kind of surprised me with that). The leads will attack first. If they do not succeed then the next and the next. Two people must never shoot at the same target at the same time.

You can see where this would lead to the aces getting the best opportunities. In addition to being the best shot, the ace has several advantages under this system
1. He gets to strike first, so is likely to have more opportunities.
2. If the opponent is surprised then it is the ace that benefits.

It really does make quite a bit of sense. The ace is the most likely to succeed, so this method probably produces the best odds of a kill. It also lets junior pilots watch and learn while still putting them in a position to do something if needed. IMHO Richthofen was very matter of fact about his trade. What matters is to shoot down enemy planes, all else is nonsense. He was not running his squadron as a sporting club. It was about taking down enemy airplanes, and "fair" didn't come into it.

Wow thanks, epub for the Nook works great.

Laser, seriously that might have been the single most helpful post I've ever gotten online. That was very fast and easy, thanks again.