Norman Franks has nearly fifty books to his credit and the scholarship involved is impressive. Although this book only deals with a specific subject in a fairly short period of time, the detail gone into is meticulous, and the story is told with skill and kept my interest going to the end. I also enjoyed a couple of pieces of relevant information which I had not had before: first, that the deflector gear used by the French was OK for them because they used copper covered and therefore comparatively soft bullets, but the Germans used steel ones which would have shattered deflectors. Therefore, having decided that the best way to shoot someone down was to aim the whole aircraft at them, a better way of shooting through the propeller arc had to be found. Necessity was, as so often, the mother of invention. The other thing I learned from this book was just how claims for victories happened, and how inflated such claims sometimes were. At the start of the period covered no one thought that scores would matter, indeed no one really thought that big scores would be obtainable - until the Eindecker came along, and changed aerial combat for ever.

So, read the thoroughly researched and detailed story of the Fokker's combats in 1915-16. Marvel again at the bravery of these men in their primitive machines. Add to the above comprehensive indices and maps, and acknowledge that this is a valuable work of reference.