To give it it's full title "Kings Of The Air, French Aces And Airmen Of The Great War". Available here:
https://www.bookdepository.com/Kings-Air-Ian-Sumner/9781783463381This is a gem of a book. It's the only comprehensive account of the Aéronautique Militaire available in English. And it does a wonderful job, from it's earliest days to the formidable force it was by war's end. It's rich in information on all arms of the air service, eg reconnaissance, bomber, photography, balloons and artillery spotting; not simply restricted to the aces. It also contains marvellous detail on flight training and flight school organisation. And there are so many new faces brought to life, most names people will not have come across before. The use of many first hand accounts bring the French flyers to life, and they are every bit as formidable and brave as their British, American and German counterparts.
This is a long overdue book, that finally does justice to the Aéronautique Militaire.
Here's a sample of just two (2) pearl's of information. The first is discussing flying the Moraine Saulnier L Parasol:
"However, the aeroplane's rotary engine made it notoriously difficult to fly.
'The pilots still aren't completely won over by the [Parasol],' reported Barnier. 'You have to position yourself very carefully into the wind on takeoff and landing. In normal flight the spin of the rotary requires constant pressure on the rudder bar to maintain straight flight; the elevators seem ultra sensitive and the ailerons slow to respond. AS soon as you dive, especially at full throttle, the elevators and ailerons both seize up and become hard to shift. If you kick the rudder bar without banking, the control column moves the wrong way and you can't retrieve it. In turbulence, the Parasol has a peculiar sideways movement which may be initially be disconcerting.'"The next extract deals with the Aéronautique Militaire's first attempts to come to grips with effectively fighting the [new] Nieuport 11 Bebe. Not having an effective synchronizer system, de Rose [aviation commander of Fith Army] and Captain de Dreuille worked with Nieuport to manufacture a top wing bracket to fit either a Hotchkiss or Lewis machinegun, that would allow replacing the drums mid-air. Bear in mind this is happening in July 1915.
"Each Nieuport 11 carried three 25-round drums or strips for the Hotchkiss, or three 47-round drums for the Lewis, but reloading was a tricky operation that put both the pilot and the plane out of action for a dangerously long time.
'You had to swing the weapon down by pulling a lever,' explained Captain Georges Thenault (N124), '...and the wind brought it sharply backwards at the risk of cracking your skull if you did not keep your head well down. It was far from an easy job to substitute a full drum for an empty one with your fingers frozen and hampered by thick gloves, and one needed quite a lot of practice to do it properly. Especially as one had to use one hand for piloting the ship for fear of getting into a spin.'
Neither the Hotchkiss nor the Lewis gun could match the German Maxim, but de Rose had always preferred to advocate attacks from close range, and forward firing allowed the French to begin to counter their opponents. Nevertheless Philippe Frequant (VB101/N65) continued to bemoan the disparity in firepower.
'In 1915 we were so obsessed by bomber development that the only fighters we produced were a few 80hp Gnome-engine Nieuport Bebes,' he remarked. 'The Bebe [certainly] handled better than the Fokker, but it's only weapon was a Hotchkiss machine gun, slowly firing it's 25-round strip, while the Fokker's Maxim rapidly spat out several hundred rounds. Things slightly improved with the Lewis machine gun, but it's rate of fire was still greatly less than that of the Maxim. And to reload meant you had to runaway.'
Jacques Mortane also highlighted the imbalance:
'How many losses are caused by this? The [enemy] can open fire at 200 to 300 metres, but our pilots are forced to wait until they're just 30 metres away. They have to be sure to get close to avoid wasting precious bullets. In a duel to the death at 3,000 metres, the man with five hundred rounds to burn must always hold all the aces.' "
