Turner Donovan Military Books - The world’s finest selection of rare and out-of-print books on British military history from 1800 to 1945
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Royal Flying Corps   27 Books
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A Short History of the Royal Air Force. For Official Use. Air Publication 125. New Ed. (revised from 1920 1st Ed), iv+489pp. Air Ministry. 1929  #63632
[HLMainPic] Prepared by the Air Historical Branch as a shorter official history & intended as an introduction to 'The War in the Air,' the official history of the RAF in the Great War. 1500 copies printed. Orig. printed paper covd. boards with red cloth sp. strip, somewhat worn. generally VG. See illustration on our website.   £60
A Subaltern's Share in the War: Home Letters of the late George Weston Devenish, Lieut. R.A., Attached R.F.C. Intro. & Notes by Mrs. Horace Porter. 1st Ed., xviii+178pp., portrait frontis., 4 plates. Constable. 1917  #60338
[HLMainPic] Regular officer RFA (commissioned 1913 after Charterhouse & Woolwich), letters & diary from France Aug.-30 Oct. 1914. He joined 6th Bty., 40th Bde. RFA on the Aisne & was wounded near his OP at Fauquissart, on the Indian Corps front, 28.10.14; in France again June 1915-Apr. 1916 (around 'Plugstreet' &c.) when trans. to RFC as Artillery Observer for four months in France, then pilot training & KiA flying as a pilot in 35 Squadron: shot down in flames, on 6th June 1917, and is commemorated on the Arras (Flying Services) Memorial.. Contains lengthy extracts from entertaining & informative letters describing his active service experiences in Flanders & later over the Western Front. Orig. paper covd. boards, sp. split o/w overall VG. See illustration on our website.   £165
[STEWART (Major Oliver, MC, AFC)] Cinquante-Quatre. France 1917. 1st Ed., [ii]+16pp. (rectos only), 7 tipped-in plates. No imprint. [1917]  #62968
[HLMainPic] Rare privately published first edition of a series of popular song tunes rewritten by Stewart with RFC themes. A small trade edition was published by Bowes of Cambridge in 1918 with subtitle "Flying Corps Songs." The author was son a of Thomas Gibson Bowles, founder of The Lady & Vanity Fair magazines. His mother was Rita Shell, who was Bowles' mistress after the death of his wife, & later editor of The Lady. She later changed her surname to Stewart. Oliver Stewart was commissioned in the Middlesex Regt. but transferred to the RFC, qualified as a pilot in 1916 & served on the Western Front from Jan. 1917, mainly flying photo. reconnaissance ops. with Sopwith Pups of 54 Squadron. He became an 'Ace', was awarded the MC (& later the AFC as a post-war test pilot). Orig. blue cloth, contents sl. loose, generally VG & rare with labels of aviation historian Chaz Bowyer & 1917 pencilled ownership inscrip. of A.J. Arkell (i.e Anthony John Arkell, MBE, MC, temp. 2nd Lt., RFC, 1916, whose personal papers &c. are held in the collection of the IWM, London). See illustrations on our website.   £225
BELL (Capt. D.H., MC)] A Soldier's Diary of the Great War. 1st Ed., xx+252pp. Faber & Gwyer. 1929  #59613
[HLMainPic] Ed. & intro. by Henry Wiliamson, who had been to school with Bell & served with him in the LRB 1914-15. Bell was commissioned in the Seaforth Highlanders in April 1915 & quickly wounded at Hill 60. Returned to the front for Loos & the Somme, awarded MC, & later transferred to the RFC as a pilot. Orig. red cloth, titled in black (second issue binding), VG. See illustration on our website.   £35
BRIDGMAN (Leonard) With a Commentary by Oliver Stewart, MC, AFC. The Clouds Remember. 1st Ed., xiv+128pp., col. frontis., 41 b/w plates. VG in sl. chipped dw. Gale & Polden. nd (c.1930).  #58348
[HLMainPic] Forty-two fine drawings by Leonard Bridgman depicting almost all of the aircraft employed by the RFC & RAF 1914-18, including the Maurice Farman Longhorn, BE2, RE8, Sopwith Pup, Camel, Dolphin &c., Nieuport Scout, Bristol Fighters, SE5, Spad, DH2 &c., each drawing accompanied by detailed notes on the characteristics, capabilities, technical qualities & operational use of the machine depicted, including Oliver Stewart's personal observations as a decorated RFC ace pilot. Stewart was commissioned in the Middlesex Regiment in Oct. 1914; transferred to the RFC in 1915. After a brief stint with 22 Squadron, he moved on in 1917 to 54 Squadron to fly a Sopwith Pup. Beacme a flight commander, nicknamed 'Stewpot', was promoted to major in June 1918, & given command of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment. He was later an aviation journalist. Nice copy & rare, especially in dw, with G&P file library bookplate. See illustrations on our website.   £225
BRUCE (T. Baines, MC) Missing. 2nd Imp. (same month st 1st Ed.), 246pp., portrait frontis., map. VG in dw. Blackwood. 1930  #60400
[HLMainPic] RFC pilot's experiences after a forced landing in the German lines in Belgium; he evaded capture & regained allied lines after thirteen weeks. Orig. black cloth, titled in white ink (usually faded but fine on this copy) & rare in dw illustrated with the author's identity bracelet to front. VG & very scarce, especially in dw. See illustrations on our website.   £165
BYGOTT (J.) Ed. Two Soldier Brothers: "Bert" (Lt. Walter Bertram Wood MC & Bar, Hants. Regt. & R.F.C.), "Ted" (2/Lt. Edwin Leonard Wood, 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers). 1ST eD., ix+176pp., 185x125mm, 8 plates. Jarrolds (London) & Albert Gait, Grimsby. nd (c.1918)  #60365
[HLMainPic] Memoirs of brothers both killed in France in 1917. Walter Bertarm Wood and Edwin Leonard Wood were both Ed. at St. James' Secondary School, Grimsby. Walter ("Bert") Wood was commissioned in the Hampshire Regiment and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps: all his service overseas was with the R.F.C., commencing 30th March 1917. He was a scout pilot in 29th Squadron and both his Military Crosses were won, during a three month period, for combats with enemy aircraft. He was then posted to 44th (Home Defence) Squadron in the U.K. and met his death in a crash on 11th November 1917. He was twenty years old and is buried in Grimsby (Scartho Road) Cemetery. His elder brother, Edwin, was born in 1892, entered the Civil Service and worked in Edinburgh: he was accepted into the Artists' Rifles in October 1916 then commissioned in the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was posted to the 1st Battalion in France in June 1917 and Killed in Action in an attack near Ypres on 26th September, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. He was twenty-five. Contains much detail on the lives of both brothers, portraits of each, extracts from their letters and diaries, recollections by friends and colleagues. Orig. grey printed paper covd. boards with red cloth backstrip, blocked black, somewhat rubbed & worn, sound. See illustration on our website.   £120
DREW (Lt.-Col. G.A.) Canada's Fighting Airmen. 1st Ed., viii+305pp., 28 plates. VG in sl. chipped dw. Toronto: Maclean. 1930  #55283
[HLMainPic] Biographies of 12 Canadian pilots & much else of interest. VG & scarce in dw. See illustration on our website.   £45
FITZHUGH (Percy K.) Tom Slade with the Flying Corps. 1st Ed., [vii]+244pp., frontis. & several other plates by R. Emmett Owen, photographic eps. VG in sl. chipped dw. NY: Grosset & Dunlap. 1919  #53921
[HLMainPic] In a series of popular boys' stories, 'Tom Slade, Boy Scout' &c. In this story he is a pilot in the Firts World war. Nice copy in attractive illustrated dw. See illustration on our website.   £35
FRANKS (N.) & GIBLIN (Hal) Under the Guns of the German Aces: Immelmann, Voss, Goring, Lothar von Richthofen, The Complete Record of their Victories & Victims. 1st Ed., 192pp., col. plates, c.100 photos. VG in dw. Grub Street. 2003  #59031
[HLMainPic] Excellent detailed research & impressive range of biographies & portraits of the Allied airmen who fell to the German elite. See illustration on our website.   £20

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