Anybody read this...

["Junior"]

Well my very first post here (although I've been skulking about and reading a bit) so please bear with me.

Just wondered if anyone here has read Arthur Stanley Gould Lee's "No Parachute". I'm thinking of getting a copy and just wondered whether it's money well spent.

Sorry, if this has been mentioned before.

Thanks,

Tim.

No, can't say as I've heard of that one... But, you may want to consider Sagittarius Rising... A very good all around read if your interested in the airwar from the Tommie perspective. Good luck to you, and welcome onboard!

"Prost!"

Dear von Tim,
The book you've indicated is A CLASSIC!, and probably one of the best candidates for "if there were just one book that you could read about WW1 aviation..."

The work is Gould's diary and letters (to his sweetheart), later compiled and annotated by Gould himself; you could not ask for a better book in terms of getting the flavour of the every-day for a rank-and-file fighter pilot.

Having read it over 30 years ago, what still stands out, in one instance, is the almost routine, uneventful way that Gould downs an Albatros: "Pop! Pop! Pop!" where the pilot didn't know-- literally-- what hit him. Then, towards the end of the work, when Gould is assigned ground strafing, there's his Camel's engine's predilection for dying in mid-flight; it happens three times, all due to a faulty magneto incorrectly installed. Tim, take it from me, it's the little things in life that end up killing you...

The book is out-of-print, but you could try AeroplaneBooks.com, Abebooks.com, or, if you enjoy living on the edge, eBay...

Good reading, and welcome aboard (I've already taken the liberty of contacting my jeweler in Berlin),
Captain Lewis

[Lufbery]

Tim,

Get the book. You won't regret it!

I read it just a few years ago and it's stuck with me since then. In fact, I was thinking of re-reading it soon.

Regards,

[Pmacko]

I had read someone mentioning this book on this forum and ordered it from Abebooks.com. There are several copies there. Mine is due to be delivered any day now and I am looking forward to it.

["Junior"]

Thanks for all the advice to a newbie! I shall definitely buy a copy as it sounds brilliant (although I shall give eBay a very wide berth ).

No doubt I'll bombard you all with more questions shortly!

Tim.

[stephen]

NO PARACHUTE is IMHO the single best first-person account of WWI aviation ever written... and I've read a few. Everything Captain Lewis says is dead on.

I bought an original, autographed copy, read it a thousand times, and even xeroxed half the book and highlited the places I wanted to see while in France. Lee's descriptions are so accurate and detailed that I had no trouble following him all over France and seeing nearly every major site that he encountered.

Get this book. Get one in paperback for your trips to the battlefields and one in hardback for your library. Its a MUST HAVE. Also get Lee's second and final WWI work entitled "Open Cockpit." Its even harder to find but worth the effort. Enjoy!

[DJ]

Best of the lot! A excellant introduction.

The mark of a well beloved book on my shelf it the amount of wear it has.

This one's pretty battered, beaten up, thumbed through, and bookmarked.

["Junior"]

Right! I'm off to abebooks then