MASTERS OF THE AIR: The Great War Pilots McLeod, McKeever, and MacLaren is the story of 3 Canadians who distinguished themselves as combat pilots over the Western Front during World War I. In contrast to Billy Bishop, who emerged from the war as Canada's most famous and highly decorated airman, having shot down 72 German planes in aerial combat, making him one of the war's top ranking fighter aces, the 3 men whose lives are chronicled here have long languished in Bishop's shadow. 

Alan McLeod joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), age 18, and within a year was serving in France as a pilot with a reconnaissance/artillery support squadron. There he acquired a reputation as a pilot who would take on any mission asked of him, no matter what the odds. McLeod showed himself to be a smart, sensible pilot with exceptional flying ability. In the course of one of these missions, on March 27, 1918, McLeod and his observer/gunner came under attack by several German fighters. McLeod's observer/gunner quickly dispatched one enemy fighter. Then 8 more of the enemy converged on the duo, intent on shooting them down. 

During the fight that ensued,"both McLeod and [his observer/gunner] were wounded by machine gun bullets, the petrol tank was punctured and the aircraft set on fire. McLeod instantly pushed her over into a very steep side-slip, but the flames were scorching him, and so he jumped out of his cockpit on to the left wing and crouched low, with the joystick pulled hard over in his right hand. Then he smashed a hole through the fabric in the fuselage so that he could reach the rudder-wire with his left hand, and so he guided her towards the lines. In this way he kept the flames away from his wounded [observer/gunner] and prevented the aircraft from burning up. When the machine finally crashed in No Man's Land, the young pilot, not minding his own injuries, dragged his comrade from the burning wreckage and under heavy fire carried him to comparative safety, before collapsing from exhaustion and loss of blood." For his actions that day, McLeod was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for valor in combat. Unfortunately, his wounds were so severe that he never returned to front-line service. 

Andrew McKeever was also a pilot of exceptional skill, serving at the Front through most of 1917 with an RFC reconnaissance/fighter squadron equipped with the 2-seater Bristol Brisfit airplane. McKeever was among those RFC pilots instrumental in developing tactics for the Brisfit in which it was successfully flown in combat as a fighter with the advantage of "an extra gun in its tail."

By late November 1917, McKeever and the observer/gunners who flew with him were credited with shooting down 31 German planes. This made McKeever one of the top 2-seater aces of the war. McKeever would survive the war only to die in Canada in December 1919 from injuries received in an auto accident. He was 25 years old. 

Donald MacLaren would be the longest lived of the 3 men, dying at age 95 in July 1988. During the war, he flew with an RFC (later the Royal Air Force) fighter squadron during 1917-1918, scoring 54 victories in aerial combat with the Sopwith Camel, one of the war's best fighter planes. In the postwar years, MacLaren would go on to play a key role in both the development of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Canadian airline industry. 

This book is also studded with photos and comes highly recommended