During the First World War the skies above became a new frontier for warfare, as many of the soldiers below caught their first glimpse of an airplane from the ground the pioneering airmen fought to gain control of the skies. Amongst the French pilots rose aces such as Hertaux and Guynemer, and embedded in their midst was the unassuming artist Henry Farr? commissioned to record their deeds, characters and life in his paintings. Farr? was determined to record the airwar and its combatants in intimate detail and lived with the sqaudrons in the field and frequently accompanied the planes up into the fray as an observer. Lieutenant Farr? wrote his short but richly detailed and illustrated autobiography a few years after the war whilst the details were fresh in his mind. It stands as an excellent record of the elite French pilots with which he served and whose deeds he painted.