THE FLEDGLING

Unofficial historian Whitehouse has been fighting the air battles of WWI so oluminously over the years that by now he must have the whole mad shebang copyright. In 1914, when he was 18, he burned to go to England, join the army and fight the uns. With an extra pair of socks, he left New York, reached Canada and crossed the Atlantic as a horse tender. In Britain, he learned a volunteer's lot was not a appy ne and wound up taking care of horses in the Northhamptonshire Yeomanry. One day in France, where he was graduated to machinegunner, he saw a British plane shoot down a jerry and, wham, he was off wide-eyed to join the Royal Flying Corps. Recruited as an serial gunner, he was sent up on his first day in a two-seater and brought down his first plane. Next day he gets his second and soon the reader is practically walking of flak. Some of the author's three years in the air in hilarious and his air battles are truly exciting.