Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter

[HagarTheHorrible]

Just picked up an early copy, in a charity shop.  The first chapter is entitled “About pioneer air combat”, will I learn anything ? I’ll have a chance to read it late, after work.

[FTC_Snowy]

I read all of the Biggles books when I was a kid. They gave me a love of reading but can’t remember if I learnt too much about flying or aerial combat skills. It’s too long ago to remember, sorry.

[Diggun]

Being an incredibly sad and somewhat obsessive individual I own all the Biggles books. The first few are where the quality is; the Camels are Coming, Of The Camel Squadron, Learns to Fly and Flies East are the best imho. The between the war stuff descends into some pretty offensive colonialist stuff, the ww2 stuff mainly recycles ww1 stuff, and John's ignorance of how things worked in ww2 air combat really shows, and the stuff after ww2 is better off forgotten.

 

It may not teach you much that you can actually apply in game, but those early books do have a good 'feel' of air combat as it was then, there are moments of genuine pathos and tragedy.

 

Two points that are worth bearing in mind though: W.E. Johns was not a Captain, and he never flew fighters. He was a DH 4 pilot for 6 weeks before being captured. 

[J37_Daedallus]

I have 3 Biggles books in hardback still on my bookshelf from when I was a kid. (There are 9 books in the series in all)

 

Biggles pioneer air fighter, Biggles of the Camel Squadron, and of course Biggles of 266, I'm still looking for Biggles flies undone?

[AndyJWest]

Anyone interested in reading the Biggles books should try to get hold of early editions, in their unaltered form. The later works along with revised editions of the earlier ones were clearly intended for a younger audience, and have been somewhat sanitised.

 

[Diggun]

1 minute ago, AndyJWest said:

early editions, in their unaltered form

Could not agree more.

 

Fags n booze much in evidence. The later editions have the ludicrous situations of pilots risking their lives for a crate of lemonade!!