Rating: 
Summary: This book is always borrowed and never returned!
Review: As a boy I learnt that copies of Winged Victory were changing hands between WW2 Bomber Pilots for £5 (or $20) a time - a considerable sum. Having read it I found out why - it contains some of the best descriptions of the sensations of flying in general - in particular the description of a flight near London remains in my memory - it also gives the feelings of a First War pilot before, during and after action. Every time I get a copy some one 'Borrows' it and it never returns. My next copy will be kept under lock and key - it's that good!
Rating:
Summary: This book is always borrowed and never returned!
Review: As a boy I learnt that copies of Winged Victory were changing hands between WW2 Bomber Pilots for £5 (or $20) a time - a considerable sum. Having read it I found out why - it contains some of the best descriptions of the sensations of flying in general - in particular the description of a flight near London remains in my memory - it also gives the feelings of a First War pilot before, during and after action. Every time I get a copy some one 'Borrows' it and it never returns. My next copy will be kept under lock and key - it's that good!
Rating:
Summary: No Romance of the Air Pioneer.
Review: Biplanes were (and still are) very cute. There is a mystique about them that transcends even steam trains. There is a mystique about the noble Knights of the Air of the Great War with which we love to associate ourselves and wish we could share in that Great Adventure. There are people who would give anything to be there.
But being there, we would do anything to get out. You stayed because your comrades needed you, because your country called you, because they would shoot you if you ran away. But there was no mystique, no great adventure. Just constant fear, constant danger, thousands upon thousands of bullets fired at you till the risk of death or maiming became probability and then virtual certainty. Tearing your flesh, burning your living flesh, in agony. And to survive was to see friends die, waves of friends passing through while death missed you by inches, knowing how stupid it was to hope to escape till the end of your six months at the front.
This is not a book about the grand and chivalrous knights of the air, jousting in single combat over the fields of France. It is a book about Fear, and the torture of Fear. It is a book about a War without purpose or reason prolonged by corruption and the genocidal stupidity of a generation of Generals and politicians, from which the only bright light was the courage of men. This is not a comfortable book at all. It was written by a man who was dying as he wrote it, with nothing to lose and a young family he knew that he would never see grow up, as he tried to leave behind something for them in a world already escalating towards another paroxysm of madness.
I have been changed by reading this book. It is one of the best books I have read. I am very very glad I was not there in 1918. There is no glory in death.
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Summary: AN AIRMAN'S ANSWER TO ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Review: By chance, I came across this book a few years ago, read it, and now treasure it among my favorites.
The author gives an unvarnished account of a young RFC/RAF fighter pilot's experiences on the Western Front during the spring and summer of 1918.
Despite the glamor often associated with the public image of the "dashing airman" of the First World War, he faced a variety of hazards, from anti-aircraft fire, collision in a dogfight, to the prospect of a fiery death from "the Hun in the sun".
In "WINGED VICTORY", the reader is given access to the all the perils, fears, and frustrations faced by the young pilot Tom Cundall, who, each day he went off on patrol, gambled with his life and fought to keep his sanity, never knowing which friends wouldn't return to the aerodrome. Or whether he would survive or be maimed or crippled.
Unlike their German counterparts (who had the "Hennecke" harness in the later stages of the war), the Allied airman was issued no parachute.
"WINGED VICTORY" brings back the immediacy of what it was like to be a British fighter pilot on the Western Front in the last year of the First World War. Highly recommended.
P.S. One minor note: Cundall flew a Sopwith Camel, not an S.E.5A as featured on the cover.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: For anyone interested in WWI aviation this is essential. For anyone interested in studying the effects of constant stress this is also a needed book. It is truly a shame it's out of print as I feel a new issue and some publicuty would create at least a modest sales volume.Just as interesting as the novel is the real and tragic life of the author, Yeates. There are many things to be learnt from this book. It's worth your effort to find a copy,
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Summary: Emotional account of man and machine in the horrors of war.
Review: I accidentally stumbled accross this book newly printed. I began reading several months later and could not place it down again. The accounts of the book are the most detailed I have yet to read. It's not a diary of an aviator, it's the recallection of events that changed millions of lives accross the globe as told by one man. Not including the war time propaganda nor the valour for fighting for your country, Yeates writes from his soul and is not affraid to release his views on war time politics and religion and the roles they play. You feel the rumble of the rotaries, smell the gas, spy the enemy in the sun. You are there. And once this book is picked up, it shall only be set down again when you need to capture your breath. Because before you, you have witnessed your friend go down in flames.
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Summary: Winged Victory (Echoes Of War)
Review: I find this book to be an excellent portrait of life as a WW1 pilot. The characters are fully developed and the setting is set perfectly. This book has to be one of the best I have picked up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the finest novel to come out of World War I
Review: Over many years, I have read perhaps 100 novels about combat in the First World War written by men who fought in that war. Despite its obscurity, Winged Victory may be the best of the lot. It certainly is the best book that I've read on World War I aviation. The parallels with Catch 22 are striking: Either Joseph Heller based Catch 22 on Winged Victory or there is an insanity to wartime aviation that is univesal. It's a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely superb! You should read this.
Review: The book gives a deep insight into the mind of the WW1 fighter pilot, written by one who was there. The authenticity of the details, both of the flying and domestic kind, is obvious. Written from the heart, this is a moving book. Brian Norminton.
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Summary: Illustrated Copy of Winged Victory
Review: This is indeed a fascinating and accurate account of the lives of those intrepid men in their flying machines.My father was a pilot in 46 Squadron along with V M Yeates. His copy of Winged Victory, which I now own, is illustrated with photographs taken at the time. I treasure it, and, as another reader advises, it never leaves our home.
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