Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 137

BOOK REVIEWS

aviation coupled with first-hand accounts from
American aviators in World War I has never been as
detailed in other works regarding the subject. What
makes this work an easily understood and fascinating
read was the simple premise Hynes expertly proved,
which was based on Billy Mitchell’s quotation in the
prologue, page 1, “The only interest and romance
in this war was in the air.” Hynes writes about this
romance in the air throughout the book and uses the
personal letters and testimony of several aviators to
demonstrate his point.
Hynes uses nineteen chapters (or waypoints) to plot
his course on this journey. These nineteen waypoints
then are grouped into three sections. The first seven
waypoints allow the reader to understand how the
young men of 1914 America underwent pilot training;
how colleges and universities were the first to develop
flight training courses that the military then supported
to boost its ranks; and how some Americans went to
foreign militaries to fly at the onset of the war and at
the forefront of military aviation. Hynes also described
in detail the romance of the flight for these young men
using their letters home as the basis.
Section two describes in detail how the American
aviators were flying and undertaking missions in World
War I. Hynes used this section to describe low-level
flying; close air support (which had different terminology during the war); how pilots spent their free time
around the French countryside; and, how pilots dealt
with death of close friends. Additionally, this section
also evaluated the start of differences between combat
pilots and support/reconnaissance pilots. At the beginning of chapter 12, Hynes tells the story of the lack
of observation pilot collections, but has plenty of pilot
material; an interesting take still seen in various aviation units in today’s military. The only negative against
the book occurs in this section due to the lack of a map
with city names and locations. Having a map in the
book would have made it easier for the reader to follow
the location of the forces in relation to the front lines.
The third and final section describes in detail the
final few months of the war and the postwar aviation
period. In this section, various pilots not giving up
flying because the war was over illustrates the romance
of aviation. Hynes also describes the various postwar
memorials and writings and how they directly affected
how pilots trained for future combat aviation roles.
MILITARY REVIEW  May-June 2016

Ultimately, Hynes’s book is a must read for anyone
interested in aviation history or in firsthand accounts
of World War I events. This book gives an interesting
look at the lead up and first use of American airpower
in war and should be mandatory reading for all members of the U.S. Air Force, as well as all other military
aviators, to inform them where military aviation truly
started as depicted straight from those flying the first
combat missions.

Maj. Joseph Ladymon, U.S. Air Force, Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas

A HIGHER FORM OF KILLING

Diana Preston, Bloomsbury Press, New York,
2015, 352 pages

A

follower of today’s headlines cannot escape
the constant mention of concerns over the
threat of weapons of mass destruction. In A
Higher Form of Killing, author Diane Preston impressively details a mere six-week period in 1915 when the
entire concept of killing on a mass scale took a quantum leap on battlefields, at sea, and in city streets. The
tools of this paradigm shift were poison gas, submarine
warfare, and aerial bombardment.
Preston provides a concise historical run up to
World War I, expertly weaving the political, technological, and legal currents influencing the evolution
of warfare. Beginning with the Old Testament, she
considers centuries of study and debate as to the nature
of “just war,” ending with the Hague Conference of
1899. That the conference placed bans on the use of
airdropped bombs and poison gas is evidence of the
world’s awareness at the time of the potential horrors to
come. However, also fascinating is her recounting of the
many rationale presented in opposition to bans; most
notably that gas was a more “humane” way of dying
than, say, being blown to bits.
Preston proceeds in chronological order, with
chapters rotating between U-boats, chemical weapons, and aerial bombardment (practiced mostly by
zeppelins). Each weapon’s development, tactical employment, and strategic impact is explained in precise
detail, but in a narrative format that seizes and holds
the reader’s attention. One particularly insightful
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