I admit I am a biased individual when it comes to the German Albatros series of fighters that fought in WWI. I cannot think of a more aesthetically pleasing WWI aircraft, plus it was an exceptional fighter also. While some variants were not as "respected" as they should have been, it is a fact that every major German Ace flew an Albatros at some point in their fighting career. Some aces, such as the famous Red Baron, Manfred von Richtofen, even scored the majority of their kills in the Albatros. When Tom Cleaver offered me the book with the condition I complete a review, I agreed so fast it made his head spin!

Following on the heels of their very successful Aircraft of the Aces WW2 series, Osprey Aviation is to be commended for expanding the series to the WWI era. This is the first of several planned books dealing with WWI, with the second of the series Nieuport Aces already released. More are promised including the famed Fokker Dr.I.

The paperback book is 96 pages in length and lavishly illustrated with over 100 photos of aces and their aircraft. As an added bonus are color profile plates of 42 famous aces aircraft and 1:72 scale line drawings of the D.I, D.II (early & late variants), D.III, D.V, and D.Va models. The book is printed on high quality magazine style paper with all photos and illustrations flawlessly reproduced.

Authored by famous air historian Norman Franks, this is his first Osprey book and he is also the author of the Nieuport book. Those familiar with both WWI & WW2 history will surely recognize his name. Overall the historical accuracy of the book is quite good, however there are a few minor inaccuracies noted that I would consider being in the "nit-picky" range.

The book is organized into three major chapters, Western Front, Albatros DV and DVa, and The Fighter Groups. The Western Front covers the history and aces of Jastas 1-10, with the following chapters covering Jastas 11-16 and Jastas 17 onward, respectively. The book is fairly comprehensive in its coverage of Albatros aces, with a section even covering the Marine Feld Jastas. A curious omission is the Albatros aces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (such as Linke-Crawford) that flew the OEFFAG built Albatros aircraft.

I highly recommend this book for any modeler or person interested in history of WWI aircraft and aces. I strongly hope that Osprey continues with plans to do following versions for additional aircraft. This book is so good, that I am going to go out and immediately buy with my own money its companion volume of Nieuport Aces! 

A special thanks goes to Squadron Mail Order (www.squadron.com) for providing the book for review.

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