September Evening: The Life and Final Combat of the German World War One Ace Werner Voss

This is the first full-length biography ever written on the life and death of the nineteen-year-old Werner Voss, who was a legend in his own lifetime and the youngest recipient of the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest award for bravery in WWI. At the time of his death he was considered by many, friend and foe alike, to be Germany's greatest ace and, had he lived, he would almost certainly have overtaken Manfred von Richthofen's victory total by early spring 1918.

Voss is perhaps best remembered for his outstanding courage, his audacity in the air and the prodigious number of victories he achieved before being killed in one of the most swash-buckling and famous dogfights of the Great War; a fight involving James McCudden and 56 Squadron RFC, the most successful Allied scout squadron.

Yet the life of Voss and the events of that fateful day in September are surrounded by mystery and uncertainty and even now aviation enthusiasts continue to ask questions about him almost on a daily basis.

Barry Diggens was determined to find out the truth and his book unearths and analyses every scrap of information concerning this extraordinary young man. His conclusions are sometimes controversial but his evidence persuasive and this study will be welcomed by, and be of great interest to, the aviation fraternity worldwide.

Includes an excellent photographic section.

Barry Diggens has been a bookseller for more than 30 years and is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association. He was born in Berkshire but has lived most of his 50-odd years on the east coast of Kent. He and his wife Sheila have two daughters and three grandsons – the pride of his life.

Barry first developed an interest in the Great War during the 1950s when he spent many school holidays with family friends in a little French village not too far from Albert in the valley of the Somme. Here he found relics of the First World War which fired his interest.

In later life, and by now a confirmed bibliophile, he was well placed to root-out many well known, and not so well known, literary and technological classics of that first great war in the air. These precious tomes, gathered from all over the world, now have pride of place in his large collection of reference works; many of which proved essential to the completion of this, his first book, a labour of love that has taken almost five years to bring to fruition.