WAR

In acknowledging the help he has received in the preparation of this book,
the author expresses a debt he cannot adequately repay. In gratitude he can but
list the names of those friends from whom he has received encouragement, and
whose time and effort have been freely and graciously given.
In the first instance, Oscar Dystel, who made the book possible; Mrs. Frieda
Taliga and John Kirbach, who surmounted language barriers; and Conrad Brown,
the editor, who guided the book to completion.
The author's colleagues of Cross & Cockade, Peter Grosz, O. A. Sater, Russell
Manning, and Frank W. Bailey were his conscience, and their advice eliminated a
number of errors from the manuscript. The errors that remain are the author's own.
For the labor of typing the entire manuscript (most of it twice), and for
innumerable sound criticisms, the author is grateful to his wife.
The kind consideration shown by the following persons and institutions was
of inestimable value in a number of ways: Col. Paul A. Rockwell; Lt. Col. T. M.
Hawker; Mrs. Frances Lewis of the Aeronautical Chart and Information Center,
U.S. Air Force; Lt. Col. Milton K. Kegley of the Office of Information, U.S. Air
Force; Leonard Joseph Patrick Leone; William E. Morse, Jr.; Alfred Friedrich of
the Gemeinschajt der Alten Adler; the British Imperial War Museum; the French
Musee de I'Air; and the Belgian Musee Royal de I'Armee et d'Histoire Militaire.
Last on this list and foremost in the author's esteem are the aviators themselves,
to whom he is indebted and grateful for their own words and thoughts, given
in letters and interviews, and for the patience with which they endured his queries:
Charles J. Biddle, Douglas Campbell, Reed McKinley Chambers, Brig. Gen.
Everett R. Cook, Capt. Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, George A. Vaughn, Jr.,
Air Vice Marshal John Oliver Andrews, Air Vice Marshal Raymond Collishaw,
Air Marshal Wilfred Austin Curtis,
Air Marshal Hugh W. L. Saunders, Hermann
Becker, Generalleutnant Hermann Dahlmann, Werner Junck, Carl-August von
Schoenebeck, Oberstleutnant Ehrhardt von Teubern, Oberstleutnant Walter von
Teubern, Baron Theobald von Zastrow, Joseph Frantz, Jacques Leps, Gilbert
Sardier, Paul Tarascon, and Robert Waddington.
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