Duel 7: Sopwith Camel vs Fokker Dr I: Western Front 1917-18 (Duel) [Paperback]

The aerial battles between the British Sopwith Camel and the German Fokker Dr I triplane fighters are some of the most iconic images of the First World War - in large part due to the role played by Baron Manfred von Richtofen (the `Red Baron') - but they were in fact, only a very brief moment in a long struggle for aerial supremacy over the trenches of northwest Europe. In Osprey's Sopwith Camel vs Fokker Dr I, author Jon Guttman lays out the dramatic battles between these two well-known adversaries during the period September 1917 and May 1918. As the author notes, although the two aircraft were relatively evenly matched, the Germans often had the edge in pilot quality and experience, but the Camels had the numbers. By May 1918, the Fokker Dr I was being phased out and replaced by the superior Fokker D VIIs and the triplanes moment in history had passed, while the Camel soldiered on until Armistice Day. Overall, this volume is well put-together, with a solid narrative and excellent graphics. However, readers may notice a certain amount of overlap and redundancy with other Osprey aviation titles in the Aircraft of the Aces and Aviation Elite Units series.

In the introduction, the author begins by noting that, "both rotary-engined fighters, the Sopwith Camel and the Fokker Dr I triplane were relatively slow for their time, but were regarded as the most maneuverable machines to achieve production during the conflict." The author goes through the design and development of each aircraft and there are nice 3-view color plates of each aircraft. Interestingly, the two pre-production Fokker F Is delivered to the front were actually better-built than the production series D I models, which is certainly rare in the history of weapons development. Some of these information has been presented in other Osprey volumes, particularly about the production defects that plagued the Dr I, but they are fundamental to understanding the limitations of this fighter. The section on Technical Specifications is a bit dry, but effective and includes cockpit views of both aircraft. While the Germans only built 320 Fokker Dr I triplanes, the British built 5,695 Camels, which certainly put the British fighter in a different league by default. Although the Dr I was also hindered by problems with an unreliable engine and the engine oil lubricants used, the author concludes that, "when it came to maneuverability, the Dr I held a slight edge..." The section on the Strategic Situation is better than many aviation titles, which skim over the operational situation and dive straight into the fighter combat. Here, the author provides a map showing the location of each sides' main fighter bases and the numbers of fighters each side actually had deployed in the spring of 1918. For the main event (the Kaiserschlact), the Brits had 336 Camels versus 171 Fokker Dr Is, nearly a 2-1 edge for the Royal Air Force.

The section on combatants provides detailed backgrounds on two British and two German pilots (very nice) and general comments on training. The section on combat is 21 pages long and similar to the style of the Aviation Elite Unit series, describing individual encounters. Of note, the author is good about noting claims made by each side, then resolving them with actual numbers lost (in the next section, he notes that British claims were particularly exaggerated). It is a bit difficult to figure out which side `won' the duel from the data presented in the statistics section, but the author does present a list of 19 Allied and 6 German aces who downed a number of their opponents; from these numbers, 45 Fokker Dr Is were lost in combat with Camels, versus 32 Camels shot down by Fokker Dr Is. While not complete, these numbers suggest that the Fokker triplane was at best `breaking even' with the RAF and the Germans were too outnumbered to trade one-for-one.

Although long remembered as the mount of the Red Baron, the Fokker Dr I triplane only provided the Germans with a transitory advantage in the early days of the Kaiserschlacht in March 1918 and then faded rapidly afterwards. The triplane proved to be highly maneuverable but weak structurally and mechanically, which made it much less resilient than the plucky Sopwith Camel. This volume helps to reinforce the conclusion that in warfare, there is no place for fragile weapons.

This is a nice little comparative analysis of the Sopwith Camel and Fokker Triplane. The book purports to cover Design and Development; Technical Specifications; a history lesson covering the background of WWI when the aircraft flew and some of the pilots that flew them; and a section entitlted "Combat". There are some tidbits in this book you won't find elsewhere in other recently published WWI books. The layout is in a single column with lots of black and white period photos. That said, this book is more of a survey rather than an in depth study of the two aircraft. If you are relatively new to this period, looking for an easily digestible discussion of the relative merits of the two aircraft, this is the book you are looking for.

I recently had the opportunity to grab a copy of this book for my small WWI aviation collection. As already mentioned it concentrates on the 2 legendary (much inflated by the decades since) fighter aircraft and there respective pilots who faced each other in combat. While there are no color profiles there are some really nice color layouts of the cockpits. The footnotes for these could have been better. for example in the fokker cockpit, they make note of the pads on the back of the machine guns but after detailing the other instruments, it completely ignores the nifty and large gauge that pops up in between the guns. The only other thing that I found lacking was the chart in the back outlining the numbers of Camels and DR 1s shot down by the pilots of the other aircraft. The chart is not accurate according to the info in the text, as it leaves out the german pilot (and ultimately the best DR1 jockey) Josef Jacobs. In the text he is one of the profiled german pilots and states he may have shot down as many as 11 camels in the Dr1. modern litigation notwithstanding he is missing from the list, so who knows who else is too. Despite these flaws this book is worth while for the casual enthusiast and I plan on grabbing the other "duel" series books dealing with WWI. Those seeking profiles should see osprey's book on Dr 1 aces, you will not be disappointed.