Little more than 10 years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war`s massive overall death toll, some 50, 000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations` fledgling air forces. The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, propaganda focusing on gallant air `aces` who become national heroes. The reality was horribly different. MARKED FOR DEATH debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy planes & unprotected pilots; of burning 19-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots blinded by the entrails of their observers. James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves & in military attitudes & strategy. By 1918 it was widely accepted that domination of the air above the battlefield was crucial to military success, a realization that would change the nature of warfare for ever.