ALOFT HOTEL SAN ANTONIO AIRPORT

Albatros Aces of World War 1 Part 2 (Aircraft of the Aces) (v. 2)

Nearly every German ace who flew before the summer of 1918 scored victories in Albatros fighters, whose introduction coincided with the development of the famous and highly successful Jagdstaffeln, the first true German fighter formations, which became a critical German air tactic and helped to wrest back air superiority from the Allies. After wreaking havoc in the skies over Arras the Albatros was eventually outclassed by succeeding generations of Allied aircraft, but still remained the most numerous and ubiquitous of all German fighters in World War I, with Albatros biplanes contributing almost two-thirds of the German fighters at the front during the Spring Offensive of 1918.

This book, with its 32 color profiles, charts the unique markings and design of one of the most menacingly beautiful fighters of the war. Featuring famous and unsung aces, a multitude of first-hand accounts and original photographs, this book offers a fresh view into the experiences of the German pilots who endured a very different kind of war from the troops on the ground. While the soldiers confronted the dangers of No-Man's Land and faceless slaughter, the pilots endured deadly games of cat and mouse in the skies above the trenches.

MS Albatros is a cruise ship, operated by the Germany-based travel agency Phoenix Reisen. She was built in 1973 by Wartsila Helsinki New Shipyard, Finland for Royal Viking Line as Royal Viking Sea, and has also sailed under the names Royal Odyssey, Norwegian Star, Crown and Crown Mare Nostrum.
Wikipedia

Albatros
Djerda, Tunisia
Sony DSC - H1
Rym Mouelhi Beddey photography

Centuries in the future, mankind struggles to survive after the "Troubles", a generation-long series of catastrophes that caused the largest population crash in the history of the human race. Everywhere, humanity has regressed to a paleolithic level of technology, hunter-gatherers eking out a bare subsistence -- everywhere except for a single barren sub-Antarctic island where a small group of refugees has managed to preserve some pre-Troubles technology and a semblance of civilization. Against all odds, the Kerguelenians not only survive, but build a maritime culture with settlements throughout the Southern Ocean. As far as they know, they are the only surviving fragment of literacy and technology in the world -- until they begin to expand northward into the Indian Ocean, and encounter a mysterious and hostile people, also seafarers, they know only as "the pirates", who seem determined, for motives unknown, to destroy Kerguelenian trade and settlements. In book one of the Westerly Gales saga, Captain Sam Bowditch has led the creation of a tiny Navy to defend Kerguelenian settlements against the depredations of the pirates, and finds them a fanatical and adaptable enemy. In this, the second volume in the series, Bowditch and the Republic of Kerguelen Navy continue the war -- and are tested to their limits by the enemy. Bowditch is beset by storms in his personal life, as well, torn as he is between two women -- one of whom is his ship's medical officer..

A climactic and bloody battle threatens the infant navy with utter destruction

A reviewer of the first volume in this series, "Westerly Gales", said: "The story is fun and fast paced, the world and the main characters are believable, the sailing very well written and the book very well polished. I read it very quickly and was left wanting for more."

Centuries in the future, mankind struggles to survive after the "Troubles", a generation-long series of catastrophes that caused the largest population crash in the history of the human race. Everywhere, humanity has regressed to a paleolithic level of technology, hunter-gatherers eking out a bare subsistence -- everywhere except for a single barren sub-Antarctic island where a small group of refugees has managed to preserve some pre-Troubles technology and a semblance of civilization. Against all odds, the Kerguelenians not only survive, but build a maritime culture with settlements throughout the Southern Ocean. As far as they know, they are the only surviving fragment of literacy and technology in the world -- until they begin to expand northward into the Indian Ocean, and encounter a mysterious and hostile people, also seafarers, they know only as "the pirates", who seem determined, for motives unknown, to destroy Kerguelenian trade and settlements. In book one of the Westerly Gales saga, Captain Sam Bowditch has led the creation of a tiny Navy to defend Kerguelenian settlements against the depredations of the pirates, and finds them a fanatical and adaptable enemy. In this, the second volume in the series, Bowditch and the Republic of Kerguelen Navy continue the war -- and are tested to their limits by the enemy. Bowditch is beset by storms in his personal life, as well, torn as he is between two women -- one of whom is his ship's medical officer..

A climactic and bloody battle threatens the infant navy with utter destruction

A reviewer of the first volume in this series, "Westerly Gales", said: "The story is fun and fast paced, the world and the main characters are believable, the sailing very well written and the book very well polished. I read it very quickly and was left wanting for more."