In the Company of Eagles

A young French aviator seeks vengeance on the German ace who killed his best friend. The story follows the deadly rivalry that develops between the two pilots, OberLeutnant Kupper and Sgt Chamay.

from reviews:

“Superb prose in a gritty and vast WWI landscape. This is worth having, and reading over and over. This author has used some interesting ways of telling this story, and not just in the blood rivalry between the French ace Sgt. Chamay and his personal enemy, German Lt. Kupper. Look for some interesting subplots: the adventures of the ham from Kempinsky’s, the comic (and sometimes dangerous) mishaps of Chamay’s mechanics, and Sgt. Chamay’s bicycle trip through the terrible aftermath of the Nivelle Offensive. The author has avoided the cliches about knights of the air. He spares nothing about the lethal and grisly nature of fighting, without parachutes, in what were little more than cloth-and-wood kites. And Chamay’s battle with Kupper is not a duel but a search for vengeance: he wants to kill him, not joust.”  –author unknown