Ghosts: The Great War

[Rooster89 0]

So there I was, in the Military History section of my local bookstore, looking for a copy of Karl Doenitz' memoirs. When out of the corner of my eye...a flash, a Sopwith Cowling. Then it dawned on me that it was the new book I've seen, posted in here too I believe, Ghosts: The Great War, Aviation In World War I. So of course, I bought it. What a book it is. I haven't dug into it too deeply yet but it looks great. Tons of huge, beautiful photographs and bits and pieces of interesting history on each craft. I think that this is one worth reccomending to you folks.

 

Heres the website for the book, hopefully it can give you a better idea of what the book is all about than I did.

http://www.ghosts.com/Merchant2/merchant.m...p;Category_Code=

 

-Rooster

[Olham 164]

Didn't know they released a book - but I saw the GHOSTS calendars before;

large photographs of the old warbirds from two World Wars, superb shots!

[VONTOBLER 18]

I have this book and all the calendars as well, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes early aviation or World War One.

VonTobler

[themightysrc 5]

I was interested to see that in the section concerning what browsers did after viewing the Amazon page that a few discerning people bought "Bloody April" by Peter Hart.

 

if you've not come across it before, I can thoroughly recommend the book, as it gives not only a good in depth view of the Arras offensive and its air component, but also provides an insight into the human and logistic problems associated with that period of the war. The book, along with Arthur Gould Lee's "No Parachute", is essential reading for students of the air war.

[Olham 164]

My goodness - clicking the link on UncleAl's post, I saw, what you lucky Americans

all can get. Osprey books, Jagdstaffel 2 Boelke - great stuff! If I can't get it in

German, I will order it from America.

[Hauksbee 103]

Great looking book. Just went to amazon.com and bought it. I especially liked the way they took WWI photos and then posed restored planes to re-create the original. Also discovered [and bought] another gem: "Scale Aircraft Drawings:World War I". It's a collection of incredibly detailed drawings by William Wyler. I remember seeing his stuff in the old AirTrails magazine when I was a kid [along with another all-time great draughtsman, Douglas Rolf]. I even bought several of the poster sized reproductions of his. As I recall they were really big: 36" x 48", but then, I was only about 60" tall and I may be mis-remembering. I still have one of the Albatros somewhere in a portfolio. If anybody is interested in skinning, don't miss this book.

Edited April 9, 2009 by Hauksbee

[zoomzoom 2]

Yeah, get it if you can find it, its BIIIIIG, and the pictures are fabulous. It even has some "naked" shots of some of the AC before covering. Very nice. I even took a pic of some of the shots in this with my cell phone, and rotate them as the background wallpaper in my phone......very nice.

 

ZZ.

[dixieflyer 0]

When this book was first published they released a limited edition that had a CD in it with recordings of original engines. You can still get it here:

 

http://www.aircraftrecords.com/productL_frame.html

 

Speaking of nekkid a/c, don't forget that the Memorial Flight in France is doing a complete restoration of a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter. you can see it here:

 

http://memorial.flight.free.fr/indexuk.html

 

Their work, amongst other researchers, has really changed some assumptions about these a/c, namely how the French manufactured machines were finished. Enjoy the site though.

 

Your Madness May Vary,

 

Warren

[Rooster89 0]

I'm really enjoying it so far. I've read about halfway through it (not much reading, mostly looking in awe). Glad to hear others have enjoyed it too.

 

I do the same thing ZoomZoom. Currently I have a picture I took of the Fokker D.VII at Old Rhinebeck as my cell background.

 

Back to read...er looking.

 

-Rooster

[Luiz Carlos 0]

I bought it in october, when I was in NY on a trip with my wife.I find it in Borders and really is a gem, like you said.

One thing I have seen in the pictures is the windscreen of the Nieup 11 , looks a lot less restrictive to the view than we have in the game.

What you think?

[rabu 9]

It was a Christmas present from my wife in 2005 and I still enjoy getting it out and looking through it.. beautiful photos, artwork and quotes from Cecil Lewis... the ultimate WWI coffee table book.

 

They came out with a later version that included a CD of recordings of WWI planes.

[tttiger 0]

I bought it last year and, yeah, when you first look at it, it's very pretty.

 

But, after you've flipped through it a few times, you start realizing Makanna has a very short list of stock camera angles and the photos in the book actually are very repetitious. There isn't much here that's creative at all. And his pictures don't tell a story or evoke emotion.

 

He's basically taken a good subject for a pretty calendar and puffed it up into a book.

 

Great photography it ain't.

 

The Cecil Lewis quotes are super, though. They sort of camouflage how superficial the pics are.

 

ttt