Looking for information on WWI life

Hello. I'm hoping someone can direct me to a few good books on life on a WWI airfield, including such mundane details as what food was served, what songs were sung, problems with provisioning, et cetera. There seem to be plenty of technical manuals out there to tell me all about the planes and who was stationed where, but I'm looking for something more intimate, to show me how those men spent their time between flights. Any suggestions?

[MikeW]

Where are you - If in the UK, the Fleet Air Air Museum has a large compilation of life in No. 3 Wing RNAS. Not just what they ate, but where they got food from, all the transport issues, like repairs and how the petrol got there, airfield maintenance etc, etc. all the nitty gritty of how an aerodrome, its aircraft, and its personnel "ticked".

If I remember correctly, its about 3" thickness of closely typed A4. The only problem is that it's not a published document, just a "research paper" compiled by a mature student doing voluntary work there.

I've told them they should publish it - even if its just photocopied or put on a web site!

[Dan_San_Abbott]

J.P.Stringfellow;

I would recommend "WINGS OF WAR" by Rudolf Stark. It is Stark's autobiography with Jasta 34b and Jasta 35b which he lead. *It is very good.

Blue skies,
Dan-San

[WFS]

I would recommend "Winged Warfare" by W.A. (Billy) Bishop. It's been a while since I read it but as I recall he goes into detail about some of the more mundane aspects of life at the Aerodromes. I seem to remember something about painting ducks!

Best Regards,
Wayne

[Amy]

J.P.:

I'd recommend Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps by James McCudden, V.C. It was later reprinted under the title Flying Fury.

Amy

Thanks to everyone who has responded. I knew this was the right place to come.

All the best to you and yours!


JPS

J.P.
You may also want to try Aces High by Alan Clark, Cassell & Co. (www.cassell.co.uk) it cronicles the air war over the western front and has a few tibits of useful info

cheers
jbs

another good read is; knight of germany, by professor johannes werner. it's a collection of letters, and other papers, written by oswald boelcke.



leon

[EdStevens]

As you can see, pilot autobiographies are a good source; I would recommend "No Parachute" by Arthur Gould Lee and the ever-popular Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis in this category. On the other hand, The First of the Few by Denis Winter is a fine detailed research by an historian that covers many aspects of the fighter pilot's life and work in the Great War. A good library or used bookstore will be needed to find these works.

[Michael]

I'd recommend "A Rattle of Pebbles" which was published about 10 years ago by the Canadian War Museum. It's basically the diaries of two Canadian fliers, one in France and one in Palestine or Mesopotamia, if memory serves.