Annette Carson's CAMEL PILOT SUPREME CAPTAIN DV ARMSTRONG DFC is an important addition to the history of early aviation and its role in the First World War. However, it did seem to be more of a history book than a biography, as it seems Armstrong himself left very little in the way of notes or letters, forcing Carson to rely primarily on an album of old photographs with a few brief, sketchy captions, that Armstrong's family had kept. So in fact Carson drew heavily from other early aviators' accounts of flying, including many of Armstrong's friends and colleagues.

Aviation was still in its infancy during the great war, and Carson presents an apt description in this passage from Arthur Gould Lee's book, NO PARACHUTE -

"the aeroplanes of the day not only lacked brakes, but had an open cockpit, no heater, no oxygen, no parachute, no radio link with air or ground, and no compass worth the name. These deficiencies were in keeping with the construction, wooden frames braced by wires and covered with highly inflammable doped fabric."

So yes, flying was a pretty iffy and dangerous business in those days, and demanded a daredevil spirit, which the young pilot from South Africa, DV Armstrong, apparently had in spades. And although he wrote almost nothing himself about his stunt-flying and aerobatic escapades, his fellow flyers did remember him as the most daring and accomplished of them all, both while he was serving at the front and while he worked as a trainer of other new pilots on the home front. Carson drew heavily from those accounts, as well as battle histories of the war and how these aviators were utilized.

One of her sources was Cecil Lewis's memoir, SAGITTARIUS RISING, a book I read myself not long ago, primarily because a later edition of the book boasted an introduction by Samuel Hynes, an author I have admired for many years. Hynes penned his own memoir of his WWII years, when he was a Marine Corps pilot in the Pacific (FLIGHTS OF PASSAGE), and, years later, he wrote his own history of early aviation and its use during the Great War, THE UNSUBSTANTIAL AIR, a book which I absolutely loved, personalized as it was by the voice of "an old pilot."

While CAMEL PILOT SUPREME does boast many photos and drawings of planes and pilots, some of the photographs from Armstrong's own album, it remains, to my mind, a rather impersonal and sketchy portrait of Armstrong the man. The primary and first-hand sources were apparently just too meager. Students and scholars of the Great War and early aviation will find much to admire here, however, as Carson obviously dug deep and widely for secondary sources to tell Armstrong's story. It is a pity there wasn't more written by the subject himself, and perhaps he might have written his own story, like Lee and Lewis did years later. Sadly though, Armstrong's life was cut short when he died in a crash at a French airfield just two days after the Armistice was signed.

I found Carson's book to very good as a history book, if a bit dry. As a biography it is not quite as successful. The primary sources were simply too thin. But the Air World imprint of Pen & Sword Books has done a wonderful job in presenting Armstrong's story in a most attractive edition, and I will recommend it highly to war and aviation buffs.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )