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elite pilots in the Royal Flying Corps, there were many hundreds of airmen who flew their hazardous daily sorties in outdated planes without ever achieving fame.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.

Informative and engrossing

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

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.

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.