FAKED OR GENUINE?

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 19

FAKED OR GENUINE?

"DEATH IN THE AIR"

There seems to be a considerable dit"forenco of opinion in England as to whether "Death In tho Air" is a genuine war book or only a faked narrative illustrated with faked photographs. "Tho Listener," in reviewing it, remarks: "Tho publishers of this book have been well advised not to express an opinion as to tho authenticity of the war diary and photographic record' which go to make it up. If tho document is genuine, then it can be | said at once that it is in all probability j the greatest which has come down to us from those years of torment. If, on the other hand, it should be proved to l)<j a fake, then it becomes an offence to decent-minded people and a paltry, j unkind, vulgar attempt to extract money for nothing. There can bo no medium between these extremes. Aeroplanes in the Great War were terribly novel fighting machines, and death in the air was invested with a peculiar quality of awfuhicss on that account. The destruction of soldiers on terra j iirma was an expected and inevitable I concomitant of battlß, and so commonly tho lot of lighting men, that only those specially concerned consulted the casualty lists with a deep emotion. But in tho air it was different. Fighting Taged above for all to see, and the outcome of duel or 'dog-fight' could raiso or lower the spirits of tens of thousands. To be burnt in tho air, or to plunge earthwards in flames, or for the aeroplane to be broken" up and flutter horribly to tho ground out of control, were sights which no one grew accustomed to at the front, and which, at home, no one cared to think about. The disappointment, the regret, and the pain of relatives were too poignant. That is why this book, unless it is wholly genuine, is an inexcusable affront, for tender recollection and sad memory are not to be faked. "Unfortunately, if tho book is read attentively and the photographs examined, with great care by anyone qualified by experience to offer au opinion, it is at ouce only too apparent that room, and to spare, for doubt exists. Hero aro few criticisms. Why, for instance, is the publication anonymous? The diarist was killed, ostensibly, in his last air-fight. Is it to shield n.n accomplice, still serving) who might be made to suffer for the crime of using a camera unanthorisedly in time of war? But the Under-Secretary o£ State for Air said in the House of Commons that no proceedings of the- sort were contemplated. Why, again, has not the Imperial War Museum taken steps to possess itself of this unique record? Is it because- the Under-Secretary said on the same occasion, with all the technical knowledge, of the Air Ministry at his disposal, that lie would not Kko to say that he considered the photographs genuine? Why, on pages 67 and 93, docs the diarist so pointedly draw attention to'tho fact that his confederate is au adept at retouching tho negatives? Why does tho position of so bulky a camera as this must have been alter on the diarist's machine so eiact]y iv correspondence with the focal viow of the accompanying illustration? Why are no bomb racks observable on the Bristol Fighters when they were so fitted at the manufacturers before issue at the front! Thero are many other points of the kind which might be mentioned, and deserve to be, but enough has been said to make it itiserntable why the owner of the record does not come forward and sot all doubt, at rest by removing the stigma of anonymity. ''One other thing remains to be said. This pilot, if ho over existed, could not be unknown, either in the heyday of his fighting life or now. Tho hero of so many combats would have_ been known to tho four winds, and his fame on every tongue. By his own showing, or according"to the* letterpress of the book, of the hundred or more outstandingly successful fighting-pilots his was the most unbreakable nervous system; his was the greatest variety of air experience; and his was the luck to emerge unscathed from more combats, withouij home leave or sustained rest of any s6rt, than any one of his comrades had ever done before. It was a pity he had to bo killed in tho end!"