Flying Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps [Paperback]

James Thomas Byford McCudden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1987

James McCudden was an outstanding British fighter ace of World War I, whose daring exploits earned him a tremendous reputation and, ultimately, an untimely end. Here, in this unique and gripping first-hand account, he brings to life some of aviation history? most dramatic episodes in a memoir completed at the age of twenty-three, just days before his tragic death. During his time in France with the Royal Flying Corps from 1914 to 1918, McCudden rose from mechanic to pilot and flight commander. Following his first kill in September 1916, McCudden shot down a total of fifty-seven enemy planes, including a remarkable three in a single minute in January 1918. A dashing patrol leader, he combined courage, loyalty and judgement, studying the habits and psychology of enemy pilots and stalking them with patience and outstanding success. Written with modesty and frankness, yet acutely perceptive, Flying Fury is both a valuable insight into the world of early aviation and a powerful account of courage and survival above the mud and trenches of Flanders. Fighter ace James McCudden died in July 1918, after engine failure caused his plane to crash just four months before the end of World War I. His success as one of Britain's deadliest pilots earned him the Victoria Cross.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Greenhill Pr; Reprint edition (December 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0947898603
• ISBN-13: 978-0947898601
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,782,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brave simple man who loved his King and country, July 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Flying Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps (Paperback)

James McCudden's book is one of the finest written about aviation of the first world war. It is basically written by a man who was a hero who was very modest, It takes the form of a diary and gives more or less a day to day event of what it was really like to fly planes made of canvas against an enemy who McCudden had great respect for. For anyone who has a passion for first world war history this is a book not to be missed,(maybe i'm biast) Please remember when reading this book that the man had very little schooling and wrote the book in a matter of weeks and the last entry is only a few days before he was killed. A GREAT BOOK.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Look at WWI in the Air, September 25, 2004

By 

L. Bryce Vanstavern (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flying Fury-Softbound (Greenhill Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Mud, gas, soldiers getting machine gunned by the tens of thousands, there was little about the ground war in World War One to be excited about. But in the sky new technology and new heroes were being born. James McCudden was one of these heroes. Many books were written during the war and just after the war by WWI aces as a type of propaganda. McCudden's book certainly bears some of these marks but there is more here. Look beyond the sometimes overstated "up and at 'em" spirit that occasionally comes out and this is a fine look at the war in the air during World War One. Several things stand out.

McCudden was in the war from the beginning. This means we are able to see the air war from the start. The air is filled with Bleriots, Farmans and even a Taube or two. We get insight into those early days. Airplanes were only good for reconnaissance right? Wrong. Almost immediately bombs are being fitted to Bleriots and observers begin toting rifles aloft to blast away at offending enemy airplanes. In McCudden's war there doesn't seem to ever be a time when enemy pilots wave to each other as they pass. From day one they are shooting.

We also gain a look at this new type of warfare. We feel McCudden's frustration as he learns just how hard it is to shoot down an airplane. We learn that those machine guns jammed with a maddening frequency, almost every flight it sometimes seems. We also learn the anguish felt when even an enemy burns. It is not until McCudden shoots one down in flames that he feels a pang of conscience over his role in the war. There is admiration for a noble foe and yet it is not shared by all. Arthur Rhys-David's attempted toast to VonRichtofen is a telling incident. Perhaps the greatest trajedy of the McCudden story doesn't actually appear in the book, at least not by McCudden's hand. Just days after completing the book James McCudden was dead, the victim not of a German aeroplane's guns but a faulty engine and the earth that was just a bit too close.

All of this make the propaganda aspect of the book fairly easy to shrug off. Originally called simply "Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps" editors saw fit to call the book "Flying Fury" when it was reprinted in the 1930s. I wish they'd left it alone. McCudden's title is better for this is truly what this book is. I recommend Flying Fury as a good look at the world's first air war.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Classic!, January 5, 2003

By 

David Parsons "Hey Joe" (Virginia Beach, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps (Paperback)

This biographical account of the one of Britain's leading aces from World War I is one of the best flying tales ever written of any era. At the age of fifteen, McCudden started out as a bugler in the Royal Engineers before becoming a mechanic in the Pre-WWI Flying Corps when aeroplane technology was still very immature. He witnessed, indeed participated, in the trials and tribulations of the nascent Flying Corps and, as war arrived, saw the fragile craft used in experiments with armed combat against troops on the ground and against enmey flying machines. His interest in flying led to passenger rides in a variety of aircraft and eventually to his performing aerial observer and gunner roles in combat where he was decorated. That was just another step in his aeronautical adventure as he was subsequently selected to train as a pilot and thrown into combat in the same sector as some of the leading German aces such as Voss and Richtofen where he not only survived, but eventually become a leading ace himself. His description of his five years in the Royal Flying Corps was written while the war was still ongoing and literally days before his posting as a squadron commander and tragic death in a flying accident en route to his new squadron. His writing style is fresh and immediate capturing the day today life and passions of WWI aviators. His impressions of his foe and the relative performance of the various flying machines are unique and better than any other author from that conflict. The publishers deserve credit for recognizing the value of this slice of history and making sure it remains available to the public. The rating system only allows 5 stars...this book deserves special status beyond that. Indeed, it has such on my shelve.