Hat in the Ring: Hat in the Ring-Fast Shipping

Description

Title: Hat in the Ring: Hat in the Ring

Author: Bert Frandsen

ISBN: 9781588341501

Publisher: Smithsonian

Published: 2004

Binding: Hardcover

Language: English

Edition: First Edition

Number of Pages: 320

Condition Note: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.

Publisher : When the US Congress declared war in April of 1917, the Europeans had deployed their third generation of fighters, equipped with machine guns and capable of speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, while the American Air Service consisted of only a handful of aviators in unarmed trainers. In this in-depth study of America’s first air warriors, Frandsen shows how in just two years the 1st Pursuit Group organized, absorbed French and British technology and experience, and became a well-led, respected, and lethal force over the trenches of the Western Front. including Eddie Rickenbacker, Billy Mitchell, Frank Luke, Benjamin Foulouis, Bert Atkinson, and James Meissner, provide new and controversial perspective into one of America’s least-understood wars and into the origins of the most powerful air force in history. Toxic personalities, competing French-British tactics and aircraft, and an experienced, aggressive enemy forced the Americans into a tactical crucible with deadly results, including 73 casualties in the Meuse-Argonne campaign alone.