Hardcover, cobalt blue cloth cover, entitled "Above the Trenches - A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920", by Christopher Shores, Norman Franks & Russell Guest, copyrighted in 1990 by Grub Street of London, reprinted in 1996, the text copyrighted by the three authors in 1990, typeset by Pearl Graphics of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, printed and bound by The Bath Press of Bath, Somerset, ISBN 0-948817-19-4. "Above the Trenches" is the result of twenty years of research and is the most comprehensive book ever written on the aces of the British Empire fighting scout units during World War I. Containing over one million words, its coverage of the British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and American pilots who were involved is exhaustive. The bulk of the book is devoted to over 800 biographies of individual scout pilots, with introductory notes providing, in the majority of cases, place and date of birth, previous military service, decorations and post war career. An extraordinary achievement of the authors' research involves the claims of the pilots, and in every case, the biographies include a full list of all claims made, by date, time, type and location, together with the serial and type of scout flown to achieve the claim and a note of the authors' sources. Where pilots were shot down in action, the authors in the vast majority of cases have been able to indicate the identity of the victor and how it fell, where victories are shared, details are provided of the other pilots involved. There is also a list of aces amongst gunners, bomber and Corps pilots. In addition, charts indicate the monthly totals of victories claimed and the most successful pilots of each month throughout the war. It begins with an Acknowledgements, followed by a five page Introduction, the book then divided into three chapters: Chapter One: Background to the Air War, 1914-18 and a Brief Account of the War in Russia, 1918-20; Chapter Two: The Squadrons and Interpretation of Claim Lists; Chapter Three: The Aces - Biographical and Claim Notes, plus Statistics and a Map of the French and Belgian Theatre. It also includes 48 pages (in three sections of 16 pages each) containing 200 black and white photographs, many of which had never before been published until this book was released. The book contains 400 pages of text, printed in black ink, on a white paper stock, the photographs inserted between pages 96 and 97, 192 and 193, 394 and 395 on a coated paper stock, the book weighing 1.37 kilograms, measuring 190 mm (w) x 251 mm (h) x 42 mm (d). It exhibits light wear on the back cover, in addition to yellowing along the edges of the pages throughout on the interior. Better than very fine.
Footnote: Christopher Shores lives in Dorset and is a prolific and much acclaimed writer on military aviation history. His first book, "Aces High" (with Clive Williams) is the companion volume to "Above the Trenches", and he has written over twenty other books. Norman Leslie Robert Franks is an English militaria writer who specializes in aviation topics, focusing on the pilots and squadrons of World Wars I and II, with over 30 books to his credit. Australian Russell Guest spent many years researching aviation matters both at home and in the United Kingdom.
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