This new book contains not only a history of the legendary Lafayette Flying Corps, but also detailed biographies of the 269 volunteer American airmen and gunners of France's Service Aeronautique who flew in sixty-six pursuit and twenty-seven bomber/observation squadrons over the Western Front - also included are the thirty-eight pilots of the Escadrille Lafayette. It is an accurate and absorbing account of the lives and combat experiences of the men who later formed the nucleus of the American Expeditionary Force squadrons. This ground breaking work contains comprehensive research, including details of war casualties and survivors, and many unpublished photographs.

Two Great Knights of Adventure was written by Jacques Mortane in 1936. Mortane was on friendly terms with both Marc Pourpe and Raoul Lufbery and wrote the book as a tribute to the two pilots, both of whom were killed in the First World War. Due to the access that Mortane had to these early aviators, this was the best work on their lives, but it was never translated into English and is long out of print. American author and Lafayette Escadrille expert Dennis Gordon recently had the book translated into English and worked with Raoul Lufbery III to add significant new content via the Lufbery family archive (which accounts for roughly half of this new volume). Marc Pourpe began working with aircraft in 1909, just after completing his schooling at Harrow. By 1911 he had attempted to construct his own aircraft from scratch and learned to fly, before receiving an official license. After receiving his license he began flying in races and exhibitions, first in France and then throughout the empire. He met Raoul Lufbery in Calcutta in 1912 and brought on the young American as a mechanic. Both Pourpe and Lufbery flew in WWI. Pourpe was killed in a crash in 1914, while Lufbery went on to be one of the top aces in the Lafayette Escadrille. Lufbery was killed in 1918.