PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Ian M. Burns worked in the aviation industry in the UK and Canada for forty-five years before retiring in 2012. For many of those years, he has been active in researching the history of British Naval Aviation during the First World War. He has written articles for Aeroplane Monthly, Cross and Cockade Journal, Over The Front and Jabberwock (The Journal of the Society of Friends of the Fleet Air Arm Museum). In 2008, Burns published a book on the history of the seaplane carrier HMS Ben-my-Chree that was selected as an Aeroplane Monthly Book of the Month
Much of this significant work is presented in the words of those who participated, not just the official records. The author synthesizes and distills the relevant facts into brief segments enabling the reader to absorb a great deal of detail quickly and with a good grasp of the events. The seventeen chapters cover the whole panoply of topics including those important and curious milestones that occurred during WWI such as: seaplane versus landplane design, the battle of Jutland, the decision to create a full deck aircraft carrier and of course the surprise raid on the Tondern Zeppelin sheds. Of particular interest to me was the experimental 'lighters' small deck boats towed at high speed by a destroyer providing a short run takeoff deck for a single aircraft. In the instance of August 11, 1918 Lieutenant Stuart Douglas Culley, an American by birth, flying a Sopwith Camel and taking off from such a lighter, intercepted and shot down the German Zeppelin L53, the last to be brought down in the war. Mr. Burns has provided the reader with a useful end matter that contains performance comparisons of RNAS aircraft, HMS Furious operation 1917-1918, a bibliographic and sources listing, as well as an index. There are fifty-one photographs reproduced on glossy paper for better contrast. In all regards this work provides in a single work a good view of RNAS activities on the subject, it is recommended reading. -- Aerodrome
