Stimulating Mixture A Great Host Ax Arm Ficurer's Scrap Book By Squadron Leader Ira Jones, D.S.O. ME.
Dra. MIN. Nicholson & Watson, London. 10/6.
Resisting the temptation, so common among those autobiographers who have lived a life of adventure and excitement, to fling words down on paper in a shapeless farrago and to rely upon the matter to atone for deficiencies in manner, Squadron Leader. Ira Jones, in his new book, "An Air Fighter's Scrap Book," has described the imperishable part played by British airmen in France, Flanders and other parts of the world, and has recorded in a characteristic vivid style his march of twenty-one years of thrills in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. Known to flyers through-Out the British Empire as "Tafty Jones, the author conquered forty foes during twenty-nine months in France and was a doughty participant in numerous other fights, He won the 53.0, M.C., D.C. and M.M, and at the end of his Great. War career continued his fighting in North Russia and, later, Iraq. Later still he flew regularly, part of the time on experimental work. No wonder he possesses such an inexhaustible store of adventures and anecdotes, the majority of which are described in his book. Consequently famous names and heroic deeds flit through the pages in endless panorama, and into his narrative he has crowded as much hazard and variety, even in his post-war work, as to thrill the most phlegmatic individual.
He introduces such famous names as "Mick". Mannock v.c, England's Great War hero of the skies; Richthofen, Germany's wartime idol; the "Mađ Major," known to every "Tommy" in France for his daring exploits in the air; Werner Voss, the German Jew: (in the opinion of the author this man was Germany's greatest air fighter—greater even than Richthofen); General Miller and Major Kosikoff, White Russian fighters: and Lawrence of Arabia, whom he introduces as Aircraftsman Shaw. He deals with such things as the exploits of the "dawn patrol" a private war in North Russia, adventures in Iraq "Rugger" (the author was an accomplished " player for several leading fifteens), the war aces of France, and with the impli¢ations of the recent European crisis.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.