NO 56 sqn was the first unit of the Royal Flying Corps to be equipped with the SE 5, and its later development, the SE 5a. The mount of many Allied aces, the SE 5a, along with the British Spowith Camel and the German Fokker D vii, was one of the finest and most successful fighter aeroplanes or World War 1. Equipped with the superb new scout, No 56 Sqn was the first fighter unit of the RFC to be able to meet the Albatros and Halberstadt fighters of the Jagdstaffeln on equal terms. Such famous fighter pilots as Albert Ball VC, James McCudden VC, Arthur Rhys Davids, Geoffrey Bowman and Leonard Barlow all served with No 56 Sqn on the Western Front, giving the outfit elite unit status. Book jacket.

Alex Revell has been interested in World War 1 aviation since the age of six and he began serious aviation research in the early 1960s. Primarily interested in people and their role in the 1914-18 air war, he traced and interviewed many ex-members of the RFC/RAF/RNAS and is particularly proud that many of them became personal family friends. An internationally acknowledged researcher into the history of the RFC/RAF and RNAS during World War 1, Alex Revell has had many articles published in specialist aviation magazines and the journals of Cross and Cockade International and The First World War Aviation Historical Society, of which he is a founder member. His has written a number of aviation-related World War 1 titles over the years. Alex Revell's latest book, British Single-Seater Fighter Squadrons on The Western Front in World War 1, was recently awarded 'Book of the Month' in Aeroplane Monthly. The author lives in Cornwall, England.