Description
The early Albatros and LFG Roland fighters of the German air service gained aerial ascendency over the British pusher fighters on the Western Front. The development of the French Spad S.7 fighter in 1916 gave the Allies a fighter that could match their opponents. The British were aware of the Spad and tried to obtain Spad S.7 fighters for their fighter squadrons. This was a difficult process with many setbacks as the Spad was wanted by the French and continually undergoing modification due to service requirements. In order to ensure supply the British decided to build the Spad 7 in the UK. The later use of the Spad S.13 by the British is also covered in detail.
Only two British squadrons used the Spad on the Western Front due to the trials and tribulations of introducing the Spad into British service and in trying to build a foreign fighter in the UK.
The successes of the Spad fighters in action on the Western Front and in the ‘side-shows’ of the British involvement in WWI, as well as a listing of all Spad fighters used by the British are covered in detail in 222 pages, with 149 photographs, 48 color profiles, a cut-away, and four multi-view scale drawings of Spad 7 variants as used by the British.
