War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator

College Station, TX.: Texas A&M University Press, 1988 Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX. 1988. Hardcover. First Edition. #6 in the Texas A&M University Military History Series. This is a review copy with the review request taped to the front pastedown. Book is tight, square, and unmarked but for F/O name stamps on the textblock edges and front and rear pastedowns; pencil notations and additions are present in text from reviewer; address label is on the FFFP. Book Condition: Very Good; light bumping to head and tail; dust soiling to textblock top. DJ: Very Good; light sunfading to spine; moisture spot and slight color loss at tail. Khaki buckram boards and spine with black lettering on the spine; aviator wings on front board in black. 277 pp 8vo. This book was first published in 1926 based on Grider's diary and editing by his friend and fellow pilot Elliott White Springs. The diary details the lives and training of 200 men who volunteered for the British Flying Corps in WWI to fly with Allied Forces before the US got into the war. He was assigned to RAF Number 85 Squadron flying a SE-5a Pursuit plane and was shot down and killed behind German lines in June 1918. His diary contained his training and combat experiences and also the opinions and prejudices, the successes and failures, the lives and deaths of those 210 volunteers. He tedails the rigors of training, the terrors of combat, and the release of social activities. Of the group, 52 were killed, 30 sounded, 14 were POW, and 20 dropped out from mental pressure. White Springs edited is diary and added two months to its time span. This book does not glorify war, it simply is a story of one man and his friends who fought for the US in WWI as guests of an ally in a strange land. A clean very presentable copy.