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Lavelle, Sidney.
Diary of a Royal Flying Corps Air Fighter.
Publisher:
Date of Publication: 1917
Stock Code: 15389
Manuscript diary with dated entries September 1917 to January 1919, in a single, very legible hand. Octavo, approximately 130 leaves of ruled paper, of which 62 are pages of manuscript. Bound in limp straight-grained morocco; gilt fillets to spine and covers; all edges marbled; marbled end-papers. Shelf-wear to extremities; a few spots of rubbing to covers. Occasional spots but generally internally clean. A very well preserved diary. The diary of Irish air fighter Lieutenant Sidney Davis Lavelle. The diary described his career as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps from the first day of his training on September 11th 1917 through to his last sortie at the end of the First World War. Lavelle originally enlisted in the Lancers, and then the 2nd Manchester Regiment, before training as an air fighter. The author describes his first time in the air, his first solo flight, practising manoeuvres including loop-de-loops and rolls. Deployed to France in March of 1918, he describes participating in bombing runs, shooting down German planes and balloons, skirmishes with enemy fighters, and a nose dive in a Sopwith Camel that led to his hospitalisation. Crashes and deaths in combat were frequent occurrences, although Lavelle describes the sacrifice of friends with typical stoicism. Alongside his battlefield exploits, Lavelle describes his lively social life in England, Ireland, and France, particularly his friendships (often very strong) with women. The author brushed shoulders with the elite social set, describing frequent soirees with English aristocrats, and even an encounter with G. K. Chesterton and W. B. Yeats. Ever the adventurer Lavelle would go on, in 1923, to be part of the first Irish crew to circumnavigate the globe alongside skipper Conor O’Brien (a former gunrunner for Irish nationalist Erskine Childers) aboard the ketch Saoirse. A rare and fascinating day-by-day account of the final years of the First World War by an air fighter who was involved in near-constant skirmishes with German forces. [ref: 15389 ] £1,250
£1250.00