Aces High

Ref: 4936

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{detailed description}The original Aces High was published in 1966, quickly went out of print, and duly became a collector's item. It was an authoritative work but the authors always intended to update and amend it in time. Now, after nearly 30 years this new edition contains the fruits of the vast amount of further research on the pilots, units and campaigns of the Second World War undertaken by Christopher Shores and Clive Williams since then.
Drawing on official records, personal log books and diaries, and information gleaned from a host of interviews, this book deals now not just with the fighter "ace" as traditionally understood, but with virtually all the notable exponents of the art of aerial combat. Some had brief, meteoric careers whilst others served for long periods, often in a variety of units and areas. Some were highly decorated, others were gone before they had received any formal recognition. Here are the great leaders and the great individualists, the career men from Cranwell and the short service volunteers. Here too are the Free Europeans, who escaped when their own countries were occupied, to fight on with the RAF. A few indeed were to claim victories with two, three or even four different forces! Included too - and in great profusion - are the men from the Dominions of what was then both Commonwealth and Empire. Details are given of those, predominantly Canadians, who went on to gain further success in later wars over Israel and Korea, together with those who rallied to the Allied cause-before their own countries were at war; notably these were US citizens, but others came even from Iceland.
The passage of time has meant that in many cases a synopsis can be provided of the whole career of many of those included, not a few of whom achieved much in the postwar years that followed. Nearly 1200 brief biographies cover pilots from all parts of the UK, and some 16 other nations. As in the first edition, details of the squadron, the aircraft, and ancillary listings are also provided, but the combat claims have been almost completely re-researched, revised, re-written and re-formatted for clarity.
A tremendous selection of photographs from hitherto private collections makes this the essential reference book for any historian of the Second World War.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Christopher Shores and Clive Williams
published by Grub Street 1994 2nd rvsd. edn. 663pp illustrated 18x26
{condition}good in unlaminated, possibly photocopied, d/j
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