A Cast of Falcons
Lieutenant Devlin Collins of the British Royal Flying Corps comes from a family of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, settlers who were sent to the north of Ireland in the 17th century. But since his father is the youngest and will not receive an estate inheritance, the entire family moves to New Jersey to find their own fortune. After being trained as a mechanical engineer, in 1916 Dev finds himself back in British territory helping a family business. He feels compelled to join the English forces as a pilot in the ongoing Great War.
Expecting to be sent to France, he instead is posted to Egypt, where the British are trying to hold off combined German and Turkish attempts to take the Suez Canal. The good news is that a British pilot’s life expectancy is greater there. The bad news is their planes are much inferior to the enemy’s. Dev’s mechanical training comes in handy, as it is a constant battle to keep his unit’s obsolescent craft airworthy for combat action. He also has an opportunity to meet a charming American girl on leave in Cairo. The young pilot then goes on to balance his time between flying reconnaissance and bombing missions and wooing his intended.
This is a realistic account of early combat aviators operating in a time and place little-covered in historical works. Lawrence of Arabia makes a brief appearance. I found the first half a bit dry and slow, but the second half happily picks up as action, both romantic and military, accelerates nicely. Billed as the story of an Irish American pilot, I found the dialogue to ring much more upper-class English even when only Americans were conversing. Heartily recommended for both aeronautics aficionados and Anglophiles.
