The Professionals

To swing the tide of the war, he must take to the air once again. It was 1916. The First World War had still two years to run. Martin Falconer, at eighteen an experienced pilot with service in France to his credit, was kicking his heels in England, awaiting another posting to the Front. Throughout the spring he watched the progress of the war, especially the war in the air, acknowledging to himself the German's superiority. Their machines were better, and they had produced the war's best-known hero of the air, the Red Baron. British machines were poor, morale was low, and the odds were stacked against them. Finally, at the beginning of April, Martin was sent again to France but this was the month that became known as Bloody April, when a pilot's life-expectancy was two weeks, and Martin found himself in a unit demoralised and ill-managed.

Set during the period of German aerial superiority that culminated in Bloody April 1917, the novel examines training, aircraft performance and squadron leadership. Manfred von Richthofen’s fame becomes part of the psychological pressure placed on British pilots.