THE FIRST WAR IN THE AIR
By R. H. KIERNAN
It is strange that the air forces in the War, with their powers of destruction more devastating and more cruel than any of the offensive arms, yet retained the chivalry of battle when it was almost wholly lost elsewhere. Mr. Kiernan in his book, The First War in the Air (Peter Davies, 5s.),, though he indulges in no heroics about the glories of war, emphasizes this side of the aerial warfare. " Chivalry" he writes, " was never effaced in men's hearts in the struggle for the skies. In the beginning when flying was a new thing there seemed to be a brotherhood of the air, a sense of sharing the same sport. The airman of 1915 might hesitate to shoot down an adVersary who had obviously run out of ammunition or who was ex- periencing some_ difficulty with his machine." He admits that as the War became intensified this spirit only in part survived, but he states that the practice of informing an enemy of the fate of an opponent shot, down beyond his own lines was never abandoned. Mr. ,Kieman's book is par- ticularlY interesting as showing the supremacy of the British Air Force that existed except for a period in 1917 throughout the War. It seems to have been achieved very largely by team work. There were no aces " like Baron Richthofen. There were men who achieved as much as he ,did Init their names were unknown to the general public. ;What. is sur- prising is that this supremacy achieved so little except in the last feW months when the Merril failure of the Colman armies was weakening with--Starvation. The frightful massacre in front of Beaumont Handel on -July 1st, 1916, occurred at a time when the British Air Force had ft cnmplete mastery in the air. Is it that the importance of the air weapon is exaggerated or that conditionS have so changed as to make the experiences of the last war quite fruit es:vas &guide to the future ? What- ever the answer Mr. Kiernan's account of British air history is a refreshing indication 'of the peculiar adaptability of the British Air -Force to the' ever changing conditions of warfare.
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