This is a most unusual book which I thoroughly enjoyed. The author's father was one of 400 American pilots trained at Foggia in Southern Italy in 1917 under Capt. Fiorello LaGuardia, the first Italian-American Member of Congress, later mayor of New York, after whom the airport is named. One of the reasons they went there, apart from the availability of Instructors and aircraft, was the weather which turned out to be not that good. 'Troppo vento, non si vola' almost became their motto.

He specialised in piloting big bombers, and having qualified, flew on many missions. He also co-piloted the first American flight over the Alps in a Caproni Ca5, and met Gianni Caproni and Ernest Hemingway. His story is told from his Journal, letters to his sweetheart (Bert, short for Bertha, who became the author's mother), and photographs, some of which, just like everybody else's, are truly awful. It is a refreshing different aspect of the War I was not previously aware of, and there are many splendid stories of both military and social happenings. There is also much to amuse; it is hard to believe nowadays how innocent young people were eighty years ago, and how every new experience delighted them, from sailing up the 'Musey' to dock at Liverpool, to the strangeness of the Paris pissoirs, and the interminable spaghetti when they arrived in Italy. He and his friends were deeply religious (he enjoyed a sermon on 'Christian Aviation'), without being at all pompous, and really enjoyed sight seeing and partying, not to mention playing craps, at which our hero was something of an expert.

Most of his snapshots are a delight, from Capronis both whole and crashed, to snowbound airfields in Southern Italy, from Nurses who tended him when he caught the 'flu to the Alps seen through the wings of his plane complete with Stars and Stripes fluttering proudly. I am so pleased the Italian publishers produced this book at a very reasonable price, and in English too. It is, however, an awkward shape to read in bed!