Bomber Pilot

Bomber Pilot 1916-18 is a unique and fascinating record of a pilot's life in the pioneer days of aerial warfare. It is based on the diary of Squadron Leader C. P. 0. Bartlett who served with the Royal Naval Air Service flying light bombers along the Belgian coast and later in France with the RAF during the Ludendorff offensive.
This day to day account, written at the time of the events described, portrays the curious mixture of grim reality and abstract wonderment engendered by fighting a cruel war in the new and exciting arena of the sky. The strain imposed by ever present danger and personal tragedy, coupled with the rigours of flying at height without heating or oxygen, shows itself in an instinctive hardening of outlook, a superficial callousness to the deaths of close friends and acquaintances. And yet one continually finds in the diary evidence of the pure joy of flying, wonder at the sheer beauty of the sky and awe at its terrible power to kill. Amidst these two extremes is the 'normal' life of a young officer socialising in the Mess, indulging in off duty pranks and festivities and the occasional, somewhat unreal, visit to 'Blighty'.
Backed up with 75 photographs, many of which are the author's own, it is essentially a personal history, and yet it is a true and faithful representation of that generation of young men who helped to fight the 'war to end all wars'.

by C. P. O. Bartlett
Published by Ian Allan 1974 1st edition. 180pp illustrated, index. 15x22 fine in faded d/j.





Note:
"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.

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