Tempting Fate

"Tempting Fate- Hobey Baker and Robert Stiles face the Red Baron's Flying Circus" includes selections from Hobey's letters home and Robert's complete diary about their experiences in mortal combat with the "Bosch" (the Germans) as flyers during World War One. The full text of Hobey's 166 letters are provided in an appendix. The diary and letters are chilling to read as the two authors write each evening following two or three two-hour patrols over the front lines. The American pilots had to contend not only with the more experienced Germans, but with frail aircraft which frequently suffer serious malfunctions. The ammunition in the machine guns they used would frequently jamb just when they were shooting at an enemy plane. The diary entries and letters reflect the excitement, the danger, the courage and the passion that these two intrepid flyers experienced in essentially real time along with their often humdrum existence at the airfield. Furthermore, the Germans frequently bombed the airfield at night, depriving the Americans their much-needed sleep. We, the readers, now can share with their families and friends these harrowing episodes in these two heroes' lives.