Radenbach, Friedrich W./Wait, Adam Far Beyond the Lines

A Story of Strategic Aerial Reconnaissance in the First World War

The book offers a fascinating insight into a crucial but often overlooked aspect of the first air war. While tactical reconnaissance squadrons monitored the front lines and immediate rear areas, other selected aircraft crews carried out missions far behind enemy lines. Their goal was to gather military information both through photographic reconnaissance and visual surveillance of large areas and to relay this vital information to the army high command to support operational planning. In the German Air Force, they were sometimes referred to as Fernflieger (long-range pilots). One of these Fernflieger was Friedrich Wilhelm Radenbach, whose experiences as a pilot of Rumpler reconnaissance aircraft from airfields near the Western Front to distant targets were recorded in a semi-fictionalised memoir entitled Weit im Rücken des Feindes (Far Behind Enemy Lines). It is a fragmentary account in which he recounts significant missions during his service with Flieger-Abteilung 23 from October 1917 to September 1918. In between, the reader gains insights into his private life and the atmosphere in his German homeland. These form a stark contrast to some of the more colourful moments in the narrative. This is the only book report by a strategic reconnaissance pilot on the Western Front during the First World War. Part 1 of Far Beyond the Lines contains a thoroughly annotated English translation of Radenbach's book, supplemented by previously unpublished passages from the original manuscript, which is in the possession of the Radenbach family. In Part 2, Adam M. Wait takes up his pen to provide an in-depth examination of Radenbach's book and to investigate the activities of Flieger-Abteilung 23 during Wilhelm's service with this unit. The 281 pages of Far Beyond the Lines are richly illustrated with black-and-white and colour photographs of aviators, aircraft (including a profile of Radenbach's Rumpler) and relevant locations. Also included are 59 maps (both standard and pictorial) and diagrams illustrating, among other things, the ground operations and flight routes of Radenbach and other members of Flieger-Abteilung 23.