Oh Launchbury, O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books are fine literature. O'Brian's series is unsurpassed. I can recommend The Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson. C.S. Forester's Hornblower series is not O'Brian but very good and in that vein. German Ace Rudolph Stark wrote a very interesting account of his time as a WWI pilot. Some unromanticized accounts, very enlightning, not dry, I thought. I have a huge library of WWI, WWII and Age Of Sail. Both fiction and non-fiction. Have not read them all of course. We had a long sticky thread back at the old forum.The top vote getter was perhaps Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis. No Parachute also got many votes.