Pen and Sword, 2010. ISBN: 1848841779.
Those who own a copy of Alex Revell's The Vivid Air, which was published by William Kimber in 1978, will immediately recognise Fighter Aces! as a reprint of a favourite account of air-fighting in two world wars, and will know Alex Revell as an accomplished and well-respected historian of air warfare in the Great War particularly noted for his expertise on Gerald Constable Maxwell's squadron: No 56. This new impression takes the opportunity to record, on the last page, the death in 2000 of Michael Constable Maxwell. The book would benefit from source notes and a bibliography.
This fast-paced double biography, and I should stress that this is a biography rather than edited memoirs, begins with the story of Gerald Constable Maxwell's service in the Great War predominantly with 56 Squadron, one of whose star pilots he became. The author makes good use of his subject's diary to detail Gerald's hectic life of patrols, combats and victories.
Gerald flew thirty-seven types between 1916 and 1918 and commented in his diary on many of them. For example, during his time as a fighting instructor at Ayr he flew a Bristol M.1C which he described after his second flight as "the nicest machine I have ever flown". After a mock dog fight Gerald recorded that in an SE5 he could do nothing against a fellow instructor in the M.1C "...as the mono outzooms an SE every time."
The book's cover, showing a Mosquito and its fatally damaged victim, emphasizes the work's dominantly Second World War content. However, any Great War aviation enthusiast should enjoy the 167 pages about Michael and Gerald in the '39 - '45 conflict just as much as they have enjoyed the sixty-two pages about the earlier war.
If The Vivid Air does not already grace your bookshelves you may want to add Fighter Aces to your collection of quality aviation biographies.
David Seymour, WFA Education Trustee
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