Winged Victory [Paperback]

V Yeates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

There is no bitter snarl nor self-pity in this classic novel about the air war of 1914-1918, based very largely on the author's experiences. Combat, loneliness, fatigue, fear, comradeship, women, excitement - all are built into a vigorous and authentic structure by one of the most valiant pilots of the then Royal Flying Corps.returncharacterreturncharacter returncharacterreturncharacter REVIEWS returncharacterreturncharacter'Beautifully written with a poet's eye as well as a pilot's eye.' Southern Evening Echo'The only book about flying that isn't flannel.' Anonymous Fighter Pilot'Not only one of the best war books...but as a transcription of reality, faithful and sustained in its author's purpose of re-creating the past life he knew, it is unique.' Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Beautifully written with a poet's eye as well as a pilot's eye.' Southern Evening Echo; 'The only book about flying that isn't flannel.' Anonymous Fighter Pilot, 1941; 'Not only one of the best war books...but as a transcription of reality, faithful and sustained in its author's purpose of re-creating the past life he knew, it is unique.' Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter, written in 1935"

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Grub Street Publishing (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904010652
• ISBN-13: 978-1904010654
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN AIRMAN'S ANSWER TO ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, September 15, 2004

By 

MONTGOMERY (WASHINGTON, DC - U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winged Victory (Paperback)

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.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heroes With Wood & Canvas Steeds, December 6, 2004

By 

Dana A. Hess (Carmichael, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Winged Victory (Paperback)

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.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Romance of the Air Pioneer., June 21, 2003

By 

Paul M. Foley (Bendigo Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winged Victory (Echoes of War) (Paperback)

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.