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A review by komet2020
Wooden Props and Canvas Wings: Recollections and Reflections of a Wwi Pilot by William Christi Robert William Christie
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
2.5
Memoirs from former U.S. bomber pilots of World War I - in contrast to the plethora of wartime memoirs from their U.S. pursuit (fighter) pilot contemporaries - are rarer than hens' teeth. That is why I was gratified to find WOODEN PROPS AND CANVAS WINGS: Recollections and Reflections of a World War I Pilot by Robert William Christie, whose father George Robert Christie (1894-1994) had served in the U.S. Army Air Service as a pilot with a frontline bomber squadron during the fall of 1918.
I've been an aviation enthusiast since my junior high school days in the late 1970s. To date, I've come across 3 bomber pilot memoirs from U.S. World War I combat veterans. Each of them, in varying degrees, provided the reader with a sense of what the training regimen - both in the U.S. and in France (albeit a number of pilot trainees did receive training in Canada and the UK) - was like for the bomber pilot trainee.
The U.S., given its late entry into the war in April 1917, had a military aviation arm (then part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps) that was woefully unprepared for the demands of modern warfare. The planes that it possessed were in no way the match of any Allied or German frontline aircraft. Even amid wartime pressures and Congress voting several million dollars for the domestic aviation industry, the U.S. failed to produce its own U.S. designed combat worthy aircraft during World War I and were reliant on the British, French, and Italians to provide their units with their latest combat aircraft. Nor was the U.S. able to develop a fully comprehensive pilot training program during the war in which pilot trainees received all of their training - basic, intermediate, and advanced -- in the U.S. and could then be posted to a frontline unit upon arrival in France. There simply weren't enough flight instructors in the U.S. who could provide training of that magnitude. So, it was the U.S., in league with a number of universities (e.g., Cornell University - where George Christie received his initial Air Service training - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Georgia Tech, Princeton, and the University of California at Berkeley), created a program for ground school training for would be pilot trainees. Ground school varied from 8 to 12 weeks. Those who successfully completed ground school were then sent to a number of flying fields in the U.S. for basic flight training, where it was determined if the aviation cadet truly had the aptitude to fly an airplane.
The best part about WOODEN PROPS AND CANVAS WINGS is that it provides the reader in one of its chapters with a copy of the complete curriculum program that the U.S. Army Air Service used in its ground schools during the war.
Furthermore, large parts of the book are derived from recorded interviews the author had with his father when he was in his 80s about his wartime experiences as a pilot. This, along with wartime diary excerpts uncovered by the author after his father's death, gives the book a credibility and gravitas that was invaluable. But what takes away from the book's authenticity is the author's admission that "[the] newspaper headlines [which are displayed at the beginning of each chapter] are fictional, cobbled up by the author to give the reader a sense of the tenor of the war as recorded in the newspapers of that era. The letters from overseas are also unauthentic." I don't think it would have been too much trouble for the author to have included actual newspaper headlines from that time period. They would have made the tone of the book even more credible and honest.
The book also suffered from several, glaring errors surrounding various aspects of U.S., Allied, and German aviation during World War I. Let me cite a few of these errors. The author refers to the Imperial German Air Service as the Luftstreitkräfte from its inception prewar. There was no Luftstreitkräfte until October 1916. Prior to that date, the Imperial German Air Service (which was a part of the German Army) was known as die Fliegertruppen.
The author also identifies Eddie Rickenbacker - the top U.S. pursuit ace of the war with 26 victories - as having served with the Escadrille Lafayette (a French pursuit or chasse squadron made up of American pilots who flew for France between 1916 and early 1918) and later the U.S. 103rd Aero Squadron, whom he identifies as "the Hat in the Ring Squadron." This is INCORRECT. Rickenbacker joined the U.S. Army in 1917, received his flight training in France (under a hybrid training scheme which combined the French and American modes of training), and was posted in March 1918 to the 94th Aero Squadron, which was one of the first American pursuit squadrons at the Front. It was the 94th Aero Squadron that later became known as "the Hat in the Ring" squadron because of the emblem it bore on the fuselages of its planes of Uncle Sam's colorful red, white, and blue hat in a ring. The 103 Aero Squadron, prior to its incorporation into the U.S. Army in February 1918, had been a part of the French Aviation Militaire, where it was known as the Escadrille Lafayette, sporting as its symbol, the head of a Sioux chief (wearing a war bonnet) in profile.
There are also some other egregious misspellings and historical errors in the book that I won't point out here. But for me, as a longtime aviation enthusiast, I was disappointed to have found so many of these errors that I would attribute to poor editing and lapses in research. Were it not for these errors and omissions, I would rate WOODEN PROPS AND CANVAS WINGS much higher because it contains a lot of valuable information highlighting the training of U.S. bomber pilots during World War I.
I've been an aviation enthusiast since my junior high school days in the late 1970s. To date, I've come across 3 bomber pilot memoirs from U.S. World War I combat veterans. Each of them, in varying degrees, provided the reader with a sense of what the training regimen - both in the U.S. and in France (albeit a number of pilot trainees did receive training in Canada and the UK) - was like for the bomber pilot trainee.
The U.S., given its late entry into the war in April 1917, had a military aviation arm (then part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps) that was woefully unprepared for the demands of modern warfare. The planes that it possessed were in no way the match of any Allied or German frontline aircraft. Even amid wartime pressures and Congress voting several million dollars for the domestic aviation industry, the U.S. failed to produce its own U.S. designed combat worthy aircraft during World War I and were reliant on the British, French, and Italians to provide their units with their latest combat aircraft. Nor was the U.S. able to develop a fully comprehensive pilot training program during the war in which pilot trainees received all of their training - basic, intermediate, and advanced -- in the U.S. and could then be posted to a frontline unit upon arrival in France. There simply weren't enough flight instructors in the U.S. who could provide training of that magnitude. So, it was the U.S., in league with a number of universities (e.g., Cornell University - where George Christie received his initial Air Service training - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Georgia Tech, Princeton, and the University of California at Berkeley), created a program for ground school training for would be pilot trainees. Ground school varied from 8 to 12 weeks. Those who successfully completed ground school were then sent to a number of flying fields in the U.S. for basic flight training, where it was determined if the aviation cadet truly had the aptitude to fly an airplane.
The best part about WOODEN PROPS AND CANVAS WINGS is that it provides the reader in one of its chapters with a copy of the complete curriculum program that the U.S. Army Air Service used in its ground schools during the war.
Furthermore, large parts of the book are derived from recorded interviews the author had with his father when he was in his 80s about his wartime experiences as a pilot. This, along with wartime diary excerpts uncovered by the author after his father's death, gives the book a credibility and gravitas that was invaluable. But what takes away from the book's authenticity is the author's admission that "[the] newspaper headlines [which are displayed at the beginning of each chapter] are fictional, cobbled up by the author to give the reader a sense of the tenor of the war as recorded in the newspapers of that era. The letters from overseas are also unauthentic." I don't think it would have been too much trouble for the author to have included actual newspaper headlines from that time period. They would have made the tone of the book even more credible and honest.
The book also suffered from several, glaring errors surrounding various aspects of U.S., Allied, and German aviation during World War I. Let me cite a few of these errors. The author refers to the Imperial German Air Service as the Luftstreitkräfte from its inception prewar. There was no Luftstreitkräfte until October 1916. Prior to that date, the Imperial German Air Service (which was a part of the German Army) was known as die Fliegertruppen.
The author also identifies Eddie Rickenbacker - the top U.S. pursuit ace of the war with 26 victories - as having served with the Escadrille Lafayette (a French pursuit or chasse squadron made up of American pilots who flew for France between 1916 and early 1918) and later the U.S. 103rd Aero Squadron, whom he identifies as "the Hat in the Ring Squadron." This is INCORRECT. Rickenbacker joined the U.S. Army in 1917, received his flight training in France (under a hybrid training scheme which combined the French and American modes of training), and was posted in March 1918 to the 94th Aero Squadron, which was one of the first American pursuit squadrons at the Front. It was the 94th Aero Squadron that later became known as "the Hat in the Ring" squadron because of the emblem it bore on the fuselages of its planes of Uncle Sam's colorful red, white, and blue hat in a ring. The 103 Aero Squadron, prior to its incorporation into the U.S. Army in February 1918, had been a part of the French Aviation Militaire, where it was known as the Escadrille Lafayette, sporting as its symbol, the head of a Sioux chief (wearing a war bonnet) in profile.
There are also some other egregious misspellings and historical errors in the book that I won't point out here. But for me, as a longtime aviation enthusiast, I was disappointed to have found so many of these errors that I would attribute to poor editing and lapses in research. Were it not for these errors and omissions, I would rate WOODEN PROPS AND CANVAS WINGS much higher because it contains a lot of valuable information highlighting the training of U.S. bomber pilots during World War I.