(06-22-2016 12:57 PM)Policiious Wrote:  What I find fascinating about WWI are the aviation battles that took place and how adept the pilots of that time were in manuevering and employing their craft to great success and cause significant damage to the opposing side

Airflight itself wasn't accomplished until only 10 years before the start of the war.
Eddie Rickenbacher (America's leading Ace) shot down 26 Axis planes despite America only being in the war for about 1 year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wo..._victories

Canada's leading flying ace Billy Bishop reportedly downed 72 enemy aircraft.

GIven that these planes had open air cockpits and no parachutes available till near the end of the war, it must have taken nerves of steel to fly these machines with virtually no safety equipment

Nerves of steel, a great deal of intestinal fortitude, and probably a bit of that insane courage present in everyone who makes history. That is an interesting point. Can't even imagine what it would have been like, hurtling around the skies of Europe running and gunning like no one had ever done before.

As for the video games, I have heard good things about Verdun. I'm just a bit cynical about the VG industry in general; World War I is a fine setting and I'm sure that Battlefield 1 will do it justice. (Especially with the biplanes!) I keep hearing that the French will be largely excluded from the initial release of the game, which is very puzzling. Apparently the developers have stated that they are so fascinated with the French role in WW1 that they want to dedicate an entire DLC to them, but that sounds a bit fishy. The DLC better be free.