This book went straight to my heart, as the author starts with the question I am continually asking in these columns, namely, what is ‘The Definition of Kills Tallies and Scores’. The first quarter is  devoted to the RNAS, followed by pieces on all the other thirteen nations who had a naval aviation capacity in the Great War. It is copiously illustrated with many unusual photographs, many of which are sadly of indifferent quality, and is altogether fascinating. I marvelled again at the beauty of German aircraft and the size and complexity of the Russian ones. The bravery of the pioneering fliers who tried landing and taking off from ships, or even submarines, and the bloody mindedness of the Naval fliers, despite blimpish opposition from the Admiralty, is vividly described. This ensured that RNAS aircraft were always better than RFC ones, and were as a consequence often ‘borrowed’ to help out in the land war. The success of airships when used properly is cogently argued, and to me is one of the best parts of the book. It describes  how, in four short years, naval aviation went from a flimsy collection of fragile moths, to being the lynch pin of maritime strategy for most of the rest of the Twentieth Century, as the Aircraft Carrier became the Capital Ship superseding the Dreadnaught. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this from cover to cover.