No Parachute

A Classic Account of War in the Air in WWI

By: Arthur Gould Lee

Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell

This account of the Great War puts you right in the action - from one of the fighter pilots of the Royal Flying Corps.

From the young airmen who took their frail machines high above the trenches of World War I and fought their foes in single combat, there emerged a renowned company of brilliant aces - among them Ball, Bishop, McCudden, Collishaw, and Mannock - whose legendary feats have echoed down half a century. But behind the elite pilots in the Royal Flying Corps, there were many hundreds of airmen who flew their hazardous daily sorties in outdated planes without ever achieving fame.

Here is the story of one of these unknown flyers - a story based on letters written in the day, telling of a young pilot's progress from fledgling to seasoned fighter. His descriptions of air fighting, sometimes against the Richthofen Circus, of breathless dogfights between Sopwith Pup and Albatros, are among the most vivid and immediate to come out of World War I.

Arthur Gould Lee, who rose to the rank of air vice-marshal and also authored the classic Open Cockpit, brilliantly conveys the immediacy of air war, the thrills and the terror, in this honest and timeless account.

©1968 Arthur Gould Lee with the kind permission of David Reed- Felstead; copyright 2013 by Grub Street (P)2020 Tantor

Tremendous on all levels.

I simply can’t imagine a better Wwi book existing. I loved everything about his story and the day to day nature of it.

Would give this a 10 all around

Wow. There are no words for this book. The journal/ letters of Arthur Gold Lee puts the reader directly in the cockpit of a WWI pilot. It’s all too real. What these men, boys really, went through defies all believability.

Literally flying without a parachute is just one obstacle that begs how any survived the war. Not many did, and through his writings Lee echoes the futility of it all. Most escaped into alcohol to cope. But regardless the pilots and soldiers become real people struggling with how anyone would feel in such miserable circumstances. Just perfect all around.

Informative and engrossing

An unromantic first hand account of flying for the Royal Flying Corp during 1917 to 1918. Detailed ,descriptive and engrossing.

Great Detail and Story

It is amazing how frequently Arthur Gould Lee wrote letter and kept diary entries during his time at the front. In simple direct language used at the time and in much more detail that one would expect for his wife to read. It accounts flying the Sopwith Pup before migrating onto the Sopwith Camel. I thoroughly recommend this book if you enjoy WWI aviation.

VERY Interesting and Informative

This was a one pilot’s service told through a series of letters he wrote home. This format made the history move fast and stay interested.

The reading was excellent.

EXCELLENT!

A very stirring account of a pilots experience flying those fragile, yet durable, planes of WWI. What guts they had!

Excellent book

Upfront and personal look at early air combat. Reading this it is amazing to think how the Wright Brothers first flight was in 1903 to air combat in 1914.

Moving

Using a personal narrative, the author reveals what it was like to be a British pilot in the first world war. The endless missions, the terrible cold, the camaraderie, the toll the constant fighting, constant danger, and constant death brought about in the psyche of the pilots who had to face it, the difficulties faced day to day, the ineptitude of the overall war plan ... it's all here and it unfolds beautifully as the book goes along.

If you want to know what life was like for a WW I ace who managed to survive the war through skill and a great deal of luck, this book is for you.

One of the most interesting reads I've ever had.

Fortunate this author and his wife had the foresight to save these letters. His unexaggerated first hand accounts of dog fighting in the WWI era are both immaculately well written and shocking in content. Madness that people were able to do this day in and day out. He doesn't attempt to romanticize or demonize the fighting, his enemies or his allies. He just tells the story.

A good memoir

This memoir give a very good feel for what it was like to be a pilot in the WWI. Not just the actual flying, but what it was like on the ground and the constant worrying that one's luck would run out. Definitely recommended.