INSCRIBED AT LENGTH BY BELGIAN ACE WILLY COPPENS

COPPENS, Willy. Days on the Wing. Being the War Memoirs of Major the Chevalier Willy Coppens de Houthulst, D.S.O., M.C. etc etc. London: Aviation Book Club, circa 1932. Octavo, original blue-green cloth, original dust jacket. $1250.

First edition in English of this memoir by the legendary WWI Belgian ace, inscribed and signed by him twice, once with a lengthy inscription in French and again beneath his frontispiece portrait, this time in English: "Never was my nose quite so big! W.C.H."

Coppens, credited with an amazing 37 victories, was the premiere "balloon buster" of World War I, fighter pilots who specialized in destroying observation balloons. The balloons were prime targets; the information they provided to troops and guns on the ground could cause considerable destruction for their enemies. At the same time, they were dangerous to attack, because of the ease of defending these stationary balloons with anti-aircraft guns. Coppens astonishing run of victories ended in October 1918 when, wounded by an incendiary bullet, he crash landed near the Belgian town of Diksmuide; he was taken to a hospital, where in order to save his life they had to amputate his leg. Coppens inscription in French reads in translation: "During the war 14-18, setting an example in the sky, before the trenches which ran from the Vosges to the North Sea, the Aces of aviation, by their ascents, held on to, even renewed the spirit of attack and of enterprise which seized the victory. Willy Coppens de Houthult. 1963." Translated from the French by A.J. Insall; illustrated with frontispiece portrait and seven plates. With discrete pencil notations in the margins numbering Coppens' individual victories as he recounts them.

A few spots of marginal foxing to text, original cloth with fading and wear, front joint starting; toned dust jacket with shallow chipping, tape repair to verso. Rare inscribed.