As Volume Two of the German Aircraft in the Great War series, Charles E. MacKay's Flying for Kaiser Wilhelm 1914-1918: Aces Aeroplanes & Defeat examines the Imperial German Air Service through newly translated period documents, training and industrial records, and nearly 300 rare photographs across 180 pages. Where Volume One, German Aircraft in the Great War, sets out the structural breakdown of German naval and military aircraft supply from Johannisthal in 1909 through to the Inter-Allied Control Commissions, this second volume focuses on the pilots, training schools, armament, observation balloons and the sudden collapse on the Western Front in November 1918.
From 12 aircraft firms to 49,000 aeroplanes
When war broke out in August 1914, Germany possessed just 12 aircraft manufacturing companies. Over the next four years of industrial mobilisation, that base expanded to 33 aircraft manufacturers employing 60,000 workers, and by the time of the Armistice the German aircraft industry had produced between 48,000 and 49,000 aeroplanes in total.
Alongside the airframe and engine factories, the volume documents the network of military flying schools, training air bases and spares-production centres that sustained front-line units. Training methods for observers, mechanics and pilots are set out in detail, showing how aircrew and ground personnel were selected and prepared before reaching operational squadrons.
Von Hoeppner's 1916 reorganisation, the aces and interrupter gear
A decisive organisational turning point came in 1916 when General Ernst von Hoeppner reorganised the German air service and introduced dedicated fighter wings to counter Entente aerial forces, giving rise to the system of celebrated fighter aces. The book provides illustrated biographies of Pour le Mérite ('Blue Max') pilots, including Ernst Udet and Hermann Göring, alongside biographies of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Crown Prince whose leadership framed the wartime service.
Technical chapters examine German aircraft armament (Spandau and Parabellum machine guns and German aerial bombs with diagrams) and trace the true evolution of machine-gun synchronisation. By documenting the influence of Roland Garros on the evolution of the interrupter apparatus, MacKay sets aside the popular myth that Anthony Fokker single-handedly invented the synchronised machine gun.
Captive observation balloons and the loss of the Luna
Fighter aces attract the headlines, but as part of its wartime expansion programme the German army depended heavily on captive balloons for artillery spotting and battlefield observation. The book covers German observation balloon deployment and observer training methods in the field, and reaches back before the war to 1910 to recount Leutnant Richter and the loss of the spherical balloon Luna in the Baltic.
Compiègne, the Coblenz handover to the Americans, and the London exhibition
The closing chapters use captured and newly translated documents to describe the sudden collapse of Germany on the Western Front, the events in Marshal Foch's railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne on 11 November 1918, and the terms of the Versailles Treaty. Probably for the first time in print, the book provides a complete list, with serial numbers and rare storage photographs, of the German aeroplanes transferred to the Allies and the United States forces at Coblenz at the Armistice, including the Fokker D.VII and the Roland D.VI. It also reproduces C. G. Grey's contemporary description of the captured German aircraft exhibition held in London in November 1918.
Read the full story
Read Flying for Kaiser Wilhelm 1914-1918: Aces Aeroplanes & Defeat for the Pour le Mérite biographies, training schools, balloon service and the complete Coblenz Armistice handover lists. Pair it with Volume One, German Aircraft in the Great War, compare the Allied side in British Aircraft of the Great War: Fighters Bombers Seaplanes Trainers Flying Boats, and follow inter-war German metal construction in Rohrbach Metall-Flugzeugbau GmbH Adolf Rohrbach's Metal Aeroplanes.