***AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHER*** World renowned author Norman Franks leads the team of Australian researcher Russell Guest, and American writer Frank Bailey. Even those people who know little of WWI’s air war will have heard of Bloody April. After more than eighteen months of deadly stalemate on the Western Front, by April 1917 the British and French were again about to launch yet another land offensive, this time on the Arras Front. This would be the first opportunity to launch a major offensive since the winter and would require enormous support from the Royal Flying Corps and French Air Force in, hopefully, improved weather. However, the air offensive was to be countered fiercely by the new German Jagstaffeln
Jastas
that had been the brainchild of Oswald Boelcke in 1916. By the spring of 1917, the first Jasta pilots, with new improved fighters
the nimble Albatros DIIIs
were just itching to get to grips with their opponents over the Western Front.
What followed was a near massacre of British and French aircraft and crews, which made April the worst month for flying casualties the war had yet seen. Here is a day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of these losses, profusely illustrated with original photographs and expertly told.
REVIEWS: Praise for Bloody April, Black September by the same authors:
…One of the most comprehensive overviews of early warfare ever published.

Flypast
The amount of work that must have gone into…this book… is truly impressive.

Aeroplane Monthly
… An extraordinarily comprehensive account of air operations in those two months…

Light Aviation, AOPA magazine
The authors have accomplished a Herculean task: sorting out the complex events of the two months and organizing them in a precise format. This significant book serves well as both history and reference. It is interesting to read, contains much information, and most importantly, it may cause a major change in the reader’s thinking…

Over the Front b/w illustrations throughout