The Royal Aircraft Factory SE 5a was one of Britain's two best fighters, the other being the Sopwith Camel. While the Camel reigned supreme at lower and medium altitudes, the SE 5a handled affairs at higher altitudes. Almost 100 British, Commonwealth and American pilots made ace in the SE 5/5a, many of their exploits being chronicled in this Osprey 'Aircraft of the Aces' volume by Norman Franks.

The SE 5a aces list reads like a 'Who's Who' of famous WWI pilots - Ball, McCudden, Mannock, Beauchamp Proctor, Rhys Davids, 'Taffy' Jones, George McElroy, Bill Lambert, 'Grid' Caldwell, etc. Relating the exploits of all those men would obviously require a book double or triple the length of this Osprey volume.

Within the book's 80-odd pages of text however Franks does a good job of touching upon each SE 5/5a squadron as they were formed and highlighting the backgrounds and successes of each's top-scoring pilots. Inclusion of several first-person accounts of dogfights is a definite plus.

Eleven pages of color profiles by Harry Dempsey and over 110 black & white photographs help illustrate the combat career of this sturdy warhorse and its brave pilots.

Nicely done, an excellent introduction.

The Royal Aircraft Factory SE 5a was one of Britain's two best fighters, the other being the Sopwith Camel. While the Camel reigned supreme at lower and medium altitudes, the SE 5a handled affairs at higher altitudes. Almost 100 British, Commonwealth and American pilots made ace in the SE 5/5a, many of their exploits being chronicled in this Osprey 'Aircraft of the Aces' volume by Norman Franks.

The SE 5a aces list reads like a 'Who's Who' of famous WWI pilots - Ball, McCudden, Mannock, Beauchamp Proctor, Rhys Davids, 'Taffy' Jones, George McElroy, Bill Lambert, 'Grid' Caldwell, etc. Relating the exploits of all those men would obviously require a book double or triple the length of this Osprey volume.

Within the book's 80-odd pages of text however Franks does a good job of touching upon each SE 5/5a squadron as they were formed and highlighting the backgrounds and successes of each's top-scoring pilots. Inclusion of several first-person accounts of dogfights is a definite plus.

Eleven pages of color profiles by Harry Dempsey and over 110 black & white photographs help illustrate the combat career of this sturdy warhorse and its brave pilots.

Nicely done, an excellent introduction.

Norman Franks' SE 5/5A ACES OF WORLD WAR 1 joins others in Osprey's 'Aircraft of the Aces' series to chart the Royal Aircraft Factory and its famous unit No. 56 during World War 1. Collections strong in either military history of the era or aviation history will find it packed with over a hundred photos, nearly forty new color art works, and detailed biographies of all pilots.