Review
Bogart Rogers went on to become a well known Hollywood writer after the war. His writing skill, clearly evident in his World War I letters, enables him to convey his thoughts and observations clearly, concisely, and with a perspective often lacking in other works. This book will appeal to anyone interested in aviation or World War I history. --
History, Fall 1997. Reviewer, Steve R. Waddell, U.S. Military AcademyIn the Introduction [Preface] to a Yankee Ace in the RAF, Earl Rogers-who edited the work with Prof. John H. Morrow-writes, "Most letters are written by ordinary people." Letters and diaries, two of the greatest pillars of historical research, were indeed written by men or women who never considered themselves out of the ordinary. Those who find themselves in a war want to record their experiences and thoughts. This is the great value of this book. Capt. Bogart Rogers recorded his wartime experiences, and was insightful as well as articulate. The reader is treated to a view of the Great War that is stripped of its popular romanticism. --
Airpower Journal, 1997 Reviewer, Dr. James J. Cooke, Oxford Miss.Rogers was a gifted writer (he wrote Hollywood screenplays after the war), and his letters are candid, entertaining, detailed, and illuminating. --
Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement, Spring 1997The editors include a preface and introduction which cover the personal points of Rogers' life, the scarcity of literature connected with Americans who joined the RFC/RAF, and an overview of salient facts concerning British aerial combat on the Western Front. Each chapter begins with a background summary which establishes a framework for the chapter's letters. There are also footnotes, when appropriate, e.g. victory confirmation documentation. Finally, there is a very nice "After the War" chapter. Thus, the reader is provided with a smooth reading that is very comprehensive and complete. It leaves little, if any, questions unanswered. The editors have done a very professional job. You owe it to yourself to purchase this book, we might not see its like again. --
Over the Front, Quarterly Journal of the League of World War I Aviation Historians, Volume 11, Number 4, Winter 1996
From the Author
In the summer of 1917 Bogart Rogers, a 20 year old sophomore at Stanford University and son of a prominent Los Angeles attorney joined the Royal Flying Corps, and trained in Canada, Texas, and England. Assigned to RAF No.32 Squadron, he arrived in France at the end of April, 1918. From the middle of May to the Armistice on November 11 Rogers fought in ten major battles on the Western Front and ended the war a Flight Leader and decorated Captain with six enemy planes to his credit. From the time he left for Canada in August 1917 until he returned home in May 1919 he wrote 244 letters to a Stanford girl, Isabelle Young, whom he married in 1920. The letters represent not only a chronicle of World War I, but also an 18 month courtship by mail. They are written with clarity and humor and the skill of a writer who, after the war, wrote for the Los Angeles Examiner, Cosmopolitan, Liberty, Sports Illustrated, The Saturday Evening Post, Popular Aviation and many other magazines . He was also a screen writer and movie producer for Paramount Pictures.
Although the book is published as Military History and covers the life of a young fighter pilot through training and aerial combat in "the terrible crucible of the air war" it also contains an element of romance and has appealed to at least a few women. One reader, Barbara Ivey wrote, "I so enjoyed becoming a part of the lives of these two sweethearts".
The original letters have been edited and the content reduced by a third, leaving out much of the trivia found in collections of letters such as comments on the weather and personal banter etc.. The book contains some, but not many footnotes. Each chapter is prefaced with a paragraph or two putting the events of the chapter in historical context.
