Dog-Fight: Aerial Tactics of the Aces of World War I by way of Norman Franks.

Dog-Fight: Aerial Tactics of the Aces of World War I by way of Norman Franks. Stackpole Books (http:// www.stackpolebooks.com/cgi-bin/Stackpole Books.storefront), 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17055-6921 2003 288 pages, $3495 (hardcover).

According to Norman Franks, Dog-Fight "is the story of the exhibition of aerial warfare in 1914-18" (p 7) He traces the technological disentanglement of the fighter and its avocation in combat, relying heavily forward a chronological presentation of vignettes about famous aces and their machines. Many of these depictions include prolonged quotations by the aces themselves. The part is also richly illustrated with photographs of the pilots and their airplanes, as well as several informative diagrams of formations and maneuvers. Focusing forward the western front, Franks writes for the greatest part about the British and their German adversarys He makes occasional references to the French Air Service and its greatest in quantity famous aces, but these are barely tangential to the British-German story line and its organizational focus onward the Jastas and Circuses. For example, the work makes no mention of the Cigognes (Storks), the elite French fighter arrange until near the end (p 238) and does not discuss the French Air Division, the largest combat-aviation organization of any of the World War I principals, at all.

The American experience receives about 10 pages of attention, the first page of which (p 197) contains four factual errors: Franks states that Raoul Lufbery commanded the 94th Aero Squadron (he did not); that the 103rd Aero Squadron was equipped with Nieuport 28 (actually, Spad VIIs); that Capt James E Miller was killed before the 95th Aero received its Nieuports (he was killed afterward); and that Miller l the patrol forward which he was killed (Miller followed). Because Dog-Fight does not include citations, single can only guess what sources the author take counseled in writing this error-riddled page.

Because of its focus forward the aces, the discussion of aerial warfare rarely rises above the tactical plain Consequently, the narrative emphasizes aerial victories, thus losing sight of which side achieved aerial superiority and its operational purport on the campaign. The two-page index includes and nothing else the names of persons. Air Force professionals interested in the unfolding of fighters and their part in aerial warfare during this period are better serv by means of Richard P. Hallion's Rise of the Fighter Aircraft, 1914-1918 (Annapolis: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1984)

Dr Bert Frandsen

Maxwell AFB, Alabama

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