Product details
- ISBN 9781780960593
- Format: Paperback
- Weight: 340g
- Dimensions: 180 x 244mm
- Publication Date: 20 Apr 2013
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Featuring previously unpublished photographs, the story of the Russian air arm, which exclusively flew French- and British-designed fighters such as the Morane-Saulnier Type G, Nieuport Scouts and Sopwith ½ Strutters.
Although the Russian Imperial Army Air Service consisted of no more than four BAGs (Boevaya Aviatsionniy Gruppa – battle aviation groups), each controlling three or four smaller AOIs (Aviatsionniy Otryad Istrebitelei – fighter aviation detachments) equipped with a variety of aircraft types, its fighter pilots nevertheless gave a good account of themselves. Indeed, during three years of war they claimed more than 200 Austro-Hungarian and German aircraft shot down, creating 13 aces – these elite aviators accounted for around half of the victories claimed on the Eastern Front.
Pilots flew a variety of fighter types, with French Nieuport scouts and SPAD VIIs proving to be the most popular, and effective, aeroplanes to see service on this front. The exploits of these aces are detailed here, with information based on material newly sourced by the author from Russian military and private archives.
Many previously unpublished photographs are used to illustrate this book, supported by full-colour profiles that reveal how striking some of the aces’ fighters were in this often-forgotten theatre of World War 1.
Victor Kulikov has had a lifelong interest in Imperial Russian aviation in World War 1, and has been particularly active in gathering information from Russian archives. Many of his articles, devoted to the history of Imperial Russian aviation, have been published in magazines in the UK (Windsock International and Cross & Cockade), France (Avions and Aero-Journal), and the USA (Over the Front, WW I Aero and Air Power History). He is also the co-author of the volume Imperial Russian Air Forces, published by Flying Machine Press in 1995.
Berkshire-based Harry Dempsey is a talented profile artist who specialises in fighter aircraft of World War 1. He has illustrated all of Osprey’s World War 1 Aircraft of the Aces titles to date.
