HISTORY OF 24 SQUADRON

A concise but vivid history of one of the most illustrious squadrons to serve over the Western Front in the Great War. One of the early commanders of the squadron was the great ace Major Lanoe Hawker VC, who was shot down in single combat wih the ‘Red Baron’, Manfred von Richthofen, in November 1916 at the end of the battle of the Somme. The squadron’s other battle honours included the advance to the Hindenburg Line in the spring of 1917; the great retreat and the defence of Amiens in 1918; and the Allied counter-offensives and advances which led to the Armistice in the summer and autumn of 1918. As the squadron’s final commander, Major V.A.H. Robeson MC proudly notes, in that year the squadron was never less than 10 men under strength, and at the end of the war were 26 men below. Still they carried on. The book is illustrated with photographs of the DH2, DH5 and SE5A machines used by the squadron, line-ups of squadron personnel and by the superb colour paintings of aerial action executed by one of its own officers, Capt. R.H.M.S. Saundby MC, author of ‘Flying Colours’. There is also a Roll of Honur, and lists of Officers, warrant officers, ground crew and other ranks along with their addresses. Published in association with the Imperial War Museum, this is a book that no aerial entusiast of the war will want to be without.