Epower - So Winningstad met up with Nurse Brittain. What a hateful job those nurses had back then. Dealing with the most horrendous injuries hour after hour and day after day. Even the most caring of souls must become numbed. His visit must have been a relief, a flicker of humanity in a monstrous world.

The airwar had changed entirely from the days of Boelcke, Immelmann and Hawker. Massed formations stacked up to nearly 20000 feet, aircraft flying nearly 50mph faster than in 1915. Two seaters able to fight as hard as scouts and in the right hands be twice as deadly. Winningstad proved he was still master though with those victories, but blimey that was a close call, coaxing his machine over the lines.

Fantastic tale and brilliant pictures, especially Haig's speech.


"A great deal of an aeroplane could be holed without affecting its ability to fly. Wings and fuselage could be—and often were—pierced in 50 places, missing the occupants by inches (blissfully unaware of how close it had come until they returned to base). Then the sailmaker would carefully cover each hole with a square inch of Irish linen frayed at the edges and with a brushful of dope make our aircraft 'serviceable' again within an hour."