Volume 38 No. 4 is Out

The issue opens with author Michael O’Neal’s study of post-war casualties at the 3rd Air Instruction Center. Steve Ruffin visits France to view the memorials to fallen American airmen, and Thomas Wildenberg examines Spenser Grey’s role in the origins of strategic bombing. Finally, Robin D. Smith views Manfred von Richthofen’s connection to Ostrowo, Poland and a possible romantic relationship there. We conclude with Charles Walthall’s Tangible Links and Peter Kilduff’s Between the Bookends.

2024 Memberships

We regret that rising costs for everything, but especially for mailing expenses, mean we have had to raise our dues for 2024 and beyond. This is the first rate increase we have had since 2016; US rates will increase by $10/year ($2.50 an issue) for both Media Mail and First Class subscriptions. We can no longer offer "Fourth Class" rates to Canada (USPS hasn't offered that option for a long time; we've been unwittingly eating the cost); Canadians now need to use the First Class US/Canada option. Rates for all other countries will increase by $15/year ($3.75 an issue). You will still get the same 512 pages of our usual content over the course of a year, in the same high-quality journal you have been receiving.

If you've received any issue from Vol. 38, you have renewed for 2023. If the last issue you received was for a prior year, your subscription has lapsed; you can renew at the old rate for 2023 or at the new rates for 2024.

 

Volume 38 No. 3 Is Here

Editor Michael O’Neal opens with author Michael O’Neal’s third article on American training casualties at Issoudun, covering the period from August 1918 to the war’s end. Tom Callen uses inscriptions in a German edition of a French philosophical book to look at the return from captivity of Heinz von Beaulieu-Marconnay and Gustav Bähren. Dr. Peter Fedders examines the battle of the Somme and the role air power (on both sides) played during the six months of the campaign. And finally Mike O’Neal reports on a letter to Charles Forschner Watson before his first solo from J. W. Porcher of the Fall Undertaking Co. of Waco Texas. The issue wraps up with Mentioned in Despatches and Between the Bookends.

An Over the Front Table of Contents

As President Dan Polglaze said in Between the Lines in Volume 35 No. 3, we (mostly he) have been delving through our back issues to create the first-ever complete Table of Contents for every issue of OTF published to date. In it you'll find titles, authors, volume, issue and page references, and major topics for each article. It's all in the form of an Excel spreadsheet so you can download your own copy and sort, search and modify it as much as you want. Can't wait to get started? Download a copy here. We'll try, now that we've got it, to keep it updated as each new issue comes out, but may fall behind.

Think of this as a first step toward a full index of all of Over the Front, an endeavor you can help with. Interested? Contact Dan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Courtesy of Steve Suddaby, who also provided us with his Allied Bombing Missiion database, we have added the table of contents of the original Cross and Cockade to the Table of Contents. 

Price Reduced on Vol. 21-30

Volumes 21 through 30 are now being sold at a mere $40/volume, or $15/issue for the single issues. So now is the time to fill in some of the gaps in your collection. Some issues are sold out; there's a line through the cover illustration on those and the we are not offering the volume they would be in. Volumes 31-34 are $60 each, with individual issues $20 a copy. Where they are available, Volumes before Volume 21 are $20 each. Single issues are still $15 for issues in those volumes.