I've always found reading old history books to be interesting. See what the general concensus of thought was way back when on certain events compared to how we view them to-day.
Well I have found a rather interesting book:
Heroes of Aviavtion by Laurence La Tourette Driggs, printed 1927. It's about the allied pilots of the First World War and seemed to have been written with much enthusiasm. It's an interesting little book that I've found rather fun to read and I would like to put it up here as a recommendation.
Here is a bit from the introduction concerning German pilot Lieutenant Immelman's daily bombing over Paris in 1914:
Regularly at 5 o'clock in the afternoon Lieutenant Immelman appeared circling over Paris. It was a daily program that afforded excitment, if not amusement, to the citizens below. So inadequate were the defenses of Paris at that time that the fearless scout scorned to fly above rifle range. The whir of his propeller could be discerned several miles away...
...One could hear the heavy booming of the big guns from the outlying fortifications. A rattle of promiscuous rifle fireing grew in intensity as the aeroplane approached over the center of the city. Several regiments stationed along the river quays aimed upwards and fired in volleys; the machine guns on the Eiffel Tower, a short distance up the Seine, could be heard- pop- pop- popping fiercely. Taxicabs drivers and their fares produced revolvers and blazed away. Literally millions of bullets were speeding up after this one solitary human being in the sky. The awful odds he was taking in this storm of lead produced feelings of pity, if not admiration for his sportsmanship.
