NO PARACHUTE

Signed and dated by Arthur Gould Lee on the half title page

To …….
Who has given me such tremendous
help in providing some World War 1
‘in flight’ photographs for my next book –
and to whom I render my deep appreciation and thanks.
With best wishes
Arthur Gould Lee
14/6/69

Published by Jarrolds. First edition 1968. 233 pages and well illustrated with photographs.

Fine condition hardback book and Fine condition unclipped dustjacket. Clean, tight and bright.  

Thanks to a broken leg during training, Arthur Stanley Gould Lee gained valuable additional time flying trainers before he was posted to 46 Squadron in France during World War I. In November 1917 during low level bombing and strafing attacks, he was shot down three times by ground fire. He spent eight months at the front and accumulated 222 hours of flight time in Sopwith Pups and Camels during a staggering 118 patrols; being engaged in combat 56 times and scoring 11 victories. He lived to retire from the RAF as an Air Vice-Marshal in 1946 but continued to have many other flying adventures. 

This is Gould Lee’s story based on letters written on the day, hot on the event, which tells of a young pilot’s progress from fledgling to seasoned fighter. His descriptions of air fighting, sometimes against the Richthofen Circus, of breathless dog-fights between Sopwith Pup and Albatross, are among the most vivid and immediate to come out of World War I. Gould Lee brilliantly conveys the immediacy of air war, the thrills and the terror, in this honest and timeless account.  Exposed to the slipstream and to every extreme of weather, the pilot and his fragile craft were one with the element in which they flew. Even in combat, pilots were conscious always that they belonged only to the sky and the clouds – and it is the reflection of this awareness which gives ‘No Parachute’ its very special quality.  After 50 years, this book was republished to further acclaim by Grub Street.

A lovely condition scarce signed first edition of this classic Great War flying memoir.