Russian Aces of WWI
By Matt Bittner
Authors: Anton Zhukov & Viktor Kulikov
Publisher: Aeronaut Books
ISBN: 978-1-964637-12-9
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 424
Quite the tome Aeronaut Books has published, Russian Aces of WWI is their largest book to date. With 348 photos, 138 color profiles and 24 color illustrations of the aces' medals, it truly is a book worth picking up.
There are 24 aces covered in the book and each has their own chapter broken down by first providing their name, where they were born, what their rank was in WWI, what units they were with, their total score, and finally a location and date of their death. That is followed by the narrative on their life and career, of course focusing on their WWI exploits. Once the narrative is finished, then the ace's section includes the Endnotes/bibliography, a table of the aircraft they shot down, the awards given that ace, the aircraft flown by that ace, followed by color profiles of some of the aircraft they flew and finally the chapter ends with a color illustration of that ace's medals.
This book contains quite the amount of detail for each ace, when known. Naturally some ace's chapters are longer than others, but that comes down to the information that was on hand while writing the book. The last part of the book is a table breaking down all the Russian aces giving pertinent data, followed by tables of Russian ranks and their equivalent in the other nations fighting during the war. Finally, the book ends with a Bibliography section.
My only quibble with this book - it truly is an amazing tome - is the missing color profile for Vakulovsky's Morane-Saulnier Type I. Instead of his very colorful profile (and one of the most colorful Russian WWI aircraft) on page 370, included in its place is Yanchenko's Morane-Saulnier Type I, repeated, which also occurs on page 393. But other than that, I find no fault with the book and can recommend it highly.
I definitely thank Aeronaut Books for sending this book to review. Contact them direct for ordering information.