Customer Reviews

Winged Victory (Echoes of War)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

By chance, I came across this book a few years ago, read it, and now treasure it among my favorites.

The author gives an unvarnished account of a young RFC/RAF fighter pilot's experiences on the Western Front during the spring and summer of 1918.

Despite the glamor often associated with the public image of the "dashing airman" of the First World War, he faced a variety of hazards, from anti-aircraft fire, collision in a dogfight, to the prospect of a fiery death from "the Hun in the sun".


In "WINGED VICTORY", the reader is given access to the all the perils, fears, and frustrations faced by the young pilot Tom Cundall, who, each day he went off on patrol, gambled with his life and fought to keep his sanity, never knowing which friends wouldn't return to the aerodrome. Or whether he would survive or be maimed or crippled.

Unlike their German counterparts (who had the "Hennecke" harness in the later stages of the war), the Allied airman was issued no parachute.

"WINGED VICTORY" brings back the immediacy of what it was like to be a British fighter pilot on the Western Front in the last year of the First World War. Highly recommended.


P.S. One minor note: Cundall flew a Sopwith Camel, not an S.E.5A as featured on the cover.

What a remarkable book! There really aren't that many stories of WWI aviation that I haven't read, so I was delighted to find this one on Amazon. It's written with marvelous attention to detail and with a great sense of authenticity. Often I had to pause to look up a word that has fallen out of usage these days. As other reviewers have mentioned, there are no "knights of the air" in this story, just young men doing a job the best they can. In fact, the story's protagonist often finds himself mourning the deaths of the German airmen that fall to the British Vickers machine guns. My only complaint (a minor one) is the cover: It shows an SE5a in a dogfight. Tom and his squadron fly the now-famous Sopwith Camel. Altogether, a great read and a book that I will re-visit from time to time.

Biplanes were (and still are) very cute. There is a mystique about them that transcends even steam trains. There is a mystique about the noble Knights of the Air of the Great War with which we love to associate ourselves and wish we could share in that Great Adventure. There are people who would give anything to be there.
But being there, we would do anything to get out. You stayed because your comrades needed you, because your country called you, because they would shoot you if you ran away. But there was no mystique, no great adventure. Just constant fear, constant danger, thousands upon thousands of bullets fired at you till the risk of death or maiming became probability and then virtual certainty. Tearing your flesh, burning your living flesh, in agony. And to survive was to see friends die, waves of friends passing through while death missed you by inches, knowing how stupid it was to hope to escape till the end of your six months at the front.
This is not a book about the grand and chivalrous knights of the air, jousting in single combat over the fields of France. It is a book about Fear, and the torture of Fear. It is a book about a War without purpose or reason prolonged by corruption and the genocidal stupidity of a generation of Generals and politicians, from which the only bright light was the courage of men. This is not a comfortable book at all. It was written by a man who was dying as he wrote it, with nothing to lose and a young family he knew that he would never see grow up, as he tried to leave behind something for them in a world already escalating towards another paroxysm of madness.
I have been changed by reading this book. It is one of the best books I have read. I am very very glad I was not there in 1918. There is no glory in death.

This book is probably one of the best aviation books I have ever read. This book is a fictionalized account of Victor Yeates owns experiences and it really draws you in.

Tom Cundell is the main character and he wrestles with: fear, loneliness; worries of cowardliness and just wanting to stay alive.

At certain times in the book you feel his pains and longings and loss of friends. Cundell is not the heroic aviator we have gotten used to reading about, but an average man who was swept up by patriotic fervor to enlist in the infantry and, after seeing the futility of trench warfare, transfers to the Royal Flying Corps. As an average man, who only wants to survive the war, he is even more the hero for overcoming his fears.

Victory Yeates wrote this book in 1934 while dying of tuberculosis. This book never got the acclaim it deserves but hopefully, in reprint, it will take its place as one of the best aviation books ever written.

A truly great war book.

This is THE book about war flying. Long out of print, if you are lucky enough to find a copy, keep it safe. Do not let your dog eat your other copy (that's what happened to me).

As a boy I learnt that copies of Winged Victory were changing hands between WW2 Bomber Pilots for £5 (or $20) a time - a considerable sum. Having read it I found out why - it contains some of the best descriptions of the sensations of flying in general - in particular the description of a flight near London remains in my memory - it also gives the feelings of a First War pilot before, during and after action. Every time I get a copy some one 'Borrows' it and it never returns. My next copy will be kept under lock and key - it's that good!

I just finished Winged Victory last night. It really tells two stories in tandem, one is telling the day to day life of a squadron as they fly combat missions in Camels over the western front and the other is the account of the mental anguish the main character endures as the pressure of war and death become more and more unbearable. At its core the book is a tragedy with the theme being the hopelessness of war and how it destroys the living as well as the dead.

As far as the flying and combat, the book is really good. Yeats goes into detail about the Camel and what it was like to fly it. Most all of the novel is describing combat over the front; bombing, strafing and dogfighting. There is no shortage of action and it is all told well by a man who saw it all. Yeats loved to fly but hated to kill and sadly that is what these machines were all about.

Winged Victory is a work of fiction written by Victor Mazlin Yeates in 1933 about the air war in France in 1918. Mr Yeates based his novel on his own experiences in the Royal Flying Corps in 1918. Although not a commercial success when initially published, it has been widely acclaimed as being an authentic description of what it was actually like to live and fly in combat during World War I.

Given a choice about historical fiction, I prefer to read books written by authors who actually lived in the times they write about. As such, Mr Yeates breathes authenticity into Winged Victory. From his protagonist's learning how to fly and first solo flight in a Sopwith Camel, to his depictions of aerial combat (more ambush the opponent and shoot him down before he even knows you're there, than dogfighting) and steadily escalating combat-related stress, to his descriptions of living day to day in a flying squadron, you learn just how the war in the air was fought and what it cost in human terms.

This is not a happy book, nor should it be given the grim the business of killing other men, although there are more than a few humorous incidents. Mr Yeates wrote about what he had lived through and felt, and his ability to describe these things is extremely good, especially for a first novel.

There are some problems with the book, which leads to my giving it a four star rating, rather than five stars. First, I think the book is a bit too repetitive in the day to day life of the squadron over the course of the book, and the book could perhaps been shortened. Second, the protagonist repeatedly rails about war profiteers/industrial manufacturers and their role (in the protagonist's view) of starting, prolonging, and profiting by the war. While I can see young men fighting in the war occasionally talking about such views in general terms, it feels like the many bitter conversations about this in the book are more the philosophical musings/anger of an older man, and I find it jarring and that it detracts from the story.

As an aside, some of the reviewers here have complained about having to look up a lot of words used in the book. While I've had to look up some, too, I don't see it as a problem, given that the book was written nearly 80 years ago by a well-educated Englishman. Times change and word usage changes, and it in no way detracts from the novel.

Even though there are some nits, this book is about as good as it gets in describing what it was like to live, fly, and fight on the Western Front in WW I, and ranks up with the best autobiographies and novels of the era. Highly recommended.

For anyone interested in WWI aviation this is essential. For anyone interested in studying the effects of constant stress this is also a needed book. It is truly a shame it's out of print as I feel a new issue and some publicuty would create at least a modest sales volume.

Just as interesting as the novel is the real and tragic life of the author, Yeates. There are many things to be learnt from this book. It's worth your effort to find a copy,

Victor Maslin Yeates knows his business. He brought down five German aircraft during WW1, flying Sopwith Camels with 46 Squadron. That enough would make this novel worth reading. But Yeates is a rare sort of writer, as good as anyone from the first half of the century. Long characterized as an "aviation classic," Winged Victory is one of the most compelling examinations of courage and introspection ever written. Read this book. That's all. Just read it.