Aces Over Ypres

August 1914. After being wounded on the ground and witnessing the death of a friend, artilleryman Charlie Sexton is transferred to the British Flying Corps as an observer. He is paired with Lieutenant James St Leger, a volunteer pilot burdened by responsibility for the death of his previous observer. Their task is to fly reconnaissance missions over the shifting battlefields of northern France and Belgium, reporting troop movements while exposed to artillery fire and fragile early aircraft.

The German Fliegertruppen initially meet their opponents in encounters still shaped by ideas of chivalry, but competition with Leutnant Kurt Manheim and the crew of biplane B466 steadily turns observation into aerial combat. As losses mount, Charlie and St Leger watch technology, tactics and attitudes change with exceptional speed. The novel follows the emergence of the fighter ace and the erosion of honour as the violence of the Western Front rises into the sky above Ypres.