WGFB: Jean Navarre, France's Sentinel of Verdun

[Teaticket]

Book Title:

WGFB: Jean Navarre, France's Sentinel of Verdun

Author:

Jim Wilberg

ISBN:

978-1-935881-00-1

Category:

Biography

Format:

Paperback

Summary:

Jean Navarre was brash, rebellious, undicipilned and disparaging of any and all authority. He was also courageous and a skilles pilot, a true virtuoso airman in the skies over the Western Front. In short, Navarre would define what it meant to be a fighter pilot. He became France's first individual hero of World War I, cementing his fame in the dogfights over the hellish trenches of Verdun: but his short life was destined to have a tragic end.
This book is an attempt to help fill the void of English language writing concerning Jean Navarre and the other early French fighter pilots who truly created the concept of the fighter pilot in military aviation.

133 period photos and drawings
Color profiles of 16 aircraft, 7 with plan views
Five paintings of early air combat
12 brief biographies of Pegoud, Garros and other important eraly aviators.

This book contains an amazing wealth of photographs on Navarre and early French aviation along with 8 pages of color profiles. It is not only a biography of Jean Navarre but short bios are included on Roland Garros, Adolphe Pegoud, Baron Tricornot, Joseph Frantz, Georges Pelletier, Eugene Gilbert, Jules Vedrines, Georger Louis Frederic Boillot, Oswald Boelcke, Charles Nungesser and George Guynemer.

[fast.git]

Thanks for the review Peter.

This is another fantastic title published by Aeronaut Books. Informative, well-written and referenced prose is beautifully supported by a wealth of of period photos and color plates.

Highly recommended, especially considering the upcoming release of the Nieuport 11 (including Navarre's distinctive Nieuport).

[Teaticket]

Thanks Chris. You may have 50+ reviews, this is my humble 10th.

The color plates are wonderful for early planes. I have a few N11s to paint and have found a couple to do here.

[fast.git]

I like Navarre's white-cowled, red N.11 (N.872) and Guynemer's pale blue (N.836). I can see both finding their way into my hangar.