In the Blue. By Major S. H. Long, D.S.O., MC.
(Lane. 5s, net.)—This simple but interesting account of Major Long's flying experiences in France was, he tells us, "jotted down during leisure momenta at the front, within hearing of the guns." He joined the R.F.C. on leaving Sandhurst in Decem- ber, 1914, and went to France in the following spring, spending the rest of the year in reconnaissance and bombing work. Aerial fighting was then in its infancy. Returning just before the First Battle of the Somme, he was provided with a Be Havilland Scout and soon brought down his first German : "it is extraordinary what a long time it takes a machine to reach the ground when falling out of control, for, although diving probably at 200 miles an hour, to the victor watching it seems an interminable age before the whole thing crumples up into a cloud of dust." Major Long, whom we know to have been a distinguished and successful fighter, describes his experi- ences very modestly but graphically. At the end of 1917 he went to Palestine and had the time of his life in assisting to demoralize the routed Turkish army. After the Armistice he was detailed to lay out aerodromes on the Cape to Cairo Aerial Route. It is distressing to read of the casual way in which he was treated by the Air Ministry when applying for demobilization and for the small gratuity duo to him. This justifiable complaint is the only thing which we have not enjoyed in Major Long's excellent little book.
Previous page
