Alan C. Wood

This beautifully illustrated book provides information on the air arms of the nations which took part in aerial warfare during the First World War featuring the Aces and their mounts. The war was a global conflict with 57 nations involved, but with aviation being in its infancy only eight nations had a major air arm to their fighting Services. The Allies: Britain, America, Italy, Belgium, France, and Russia and then the Central Powers comprising Germany and Austria-Hungary. This book is not intended to be comprehensive, for to provide such a work would require many volumes totalling thousands of pages. Instead this should be viewed as a relatively detailed overview; a general introduction to the topic of military aviation in the First World War. The aim has been to produce a well-illustrated book to maintain the interest of the reader with some short biographies of the leading Aces and basic information on the aircraft types used, and their development during the First World War. Furthermore, this book focuses on the air arms initially developed by the respective armies, and therefore the air arms of the navies, although fleetingly touched upon, are not dealt with in much detail. To provide reasonable coverage for the Royal Naval Air Service alone would require a separate and substantial additional volume. In a similar manner, although Zeppelins, other airships and balloons are mentioned and illustrated, little detail is given. The book contains details of the top Aces for each nation and in extensive illustration sections provides an extensive summary of the aircraft flown. While much of the focus is on the Aces, the book provides information on the aircraft flown and also has a separate illustrated section on Manfred von Richthofen and his 'flying circus'.

Following several personal sightings of ghosts, including that of a First World War pilot, Alan Wood has spent sixty years researching the occult. Military Ghosts is the result and is designed as a gazetteer of locations where military ghosts have been reported. It includes not only such well known legends as that of Sir Francis Drake's Drum, but a wide variety of stories, ranging from a patrol of ghostly Roman legionnaires to a fully fledged re-enactment of the Battle of Edgehill, from benevolent spirits to one so terrifying that witnesses have committed suicide rather than face it, through to the spirits of seventeenth-century cavaliers and the more modern ghosts of fighter pilots from the First and Second World Wars. This book covers soldiers, sailors and airmen, and a wide range of locations not only in the UK but also overseas.

A history of Handsworth

This book is part of the Images of Aviation series, which uses old photographs and archived images to show the history of various aviation companies and groups in Great Britain.

The story of the legendary pilots and their daring exploits. World War One was the first truly modern war fought with modern equipment and for the first time the new-fangled aircraft were to play their part. The war created a new breed of men: brave, resourceful and skilled at piloting the new fighter aircraft. Many became household names and their exploits became legendary. At a time when, for some, their flying time could be counted in hours before they were shot down, the war inspired a group of elite pilots - the Aces. Those that fought on the German side included Frieherr Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), Ernst Udet and Herman Goering (later to play a prominent part in the Second World War).