36 episodes listed below
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This is the WWI memoirs of Medal of Honor winner, Capt Eddie Rickenbacker. He fought in and eventually became commander of the 94th "Hat-in-the-Ring" Squadron, which ended the war with the highest number of air victories of any American squadron. The circus mentioned in the title refers to the German squadron commanded by the famous Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. (Introduction by Brett W. Downey)
One puny magneto over enemy lines: your preferred level of historical stress may need recalibrating.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A balloon mission turns into a stark account of aerial combat, sacrifice, and men remembered in the sky.
A mission against enemy balloons at Don Sermuz and Ancreville becomes a tense account of a plan breaking apart under fire. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker takes command, sends Lieutenants Coolidge and Chambers toward the targets, and notes support from the 147th and 27th Squadrons.
An early-morning balloon raid turns into a nerve test when one magneto separates flight from capture.
A tethered observation balloon becomes the episode's central tactical problem: large, low, and useful precisely because it can watch enemy movement while its truck and cable make escape awkward.
A sharp aerial fight near Vignole gives way to the practical weight of squadron command.
Captain of the Hat-in-the-Ring Squadron makes Three-Fingered Lake feel less like scenery than a tactical point on the front, then turns it into the launchpad for fast, dangerous air fighting.
Rickenbacker's new command turns remembered flying mistakes into survival rules, before a chateau visit gives way to danger overhead.
Captain Jimmy Hall's disappearance pushes Rickenbacker into command, and he treats the role less as status than as a duty to teach survival. His warnings about the Nieuport's fragile wings and his habit of circling before landing give the episode its practical shape, because the…
A squadron move leads into a clear-eyed reckoning with fear, survival, and aerial combat.
Chapter 19 tracks the American fighting squadrons from the Toole Sector into the Chateau Thierry region, where a move to an old French aerodrome opens into a sharper, more reflective stretch of air-war history.
Outnumbered units, remembered under fire.
Battle maps, war films, and patient context.
War news, tested against military reality.
Antique European history, read aloud.
Captain Eddie Rickenbacker recounts his return to flying after an ear injury and the heavy losses suffered by his squadron, including the disappearance of Lieutenant John MacArthur's formation.
Eddie Rickenbacker recounts the German offensive in late June 1918 and the strategic situation around Soissons and the Marne River.
Eddie Rickenbacker’s Chapter 19 follows 94 Squadron and 95 Squadron from Toul to Toucouin near Chateau-Thierry on June 27, 1918, with Major Harold E.
Captain Eddie Rickenbacker recounts the first war-flight order for the all-American 94th Squadron, detailing their patrol route and landmarks.
Captain Eddie Rickenbacker describes his early morning mission to destroy a German observation balloon and the spectacular view of the front lines at dawn.
On October 10th, Eddie Rickenbacker leads the 94th Squadron, with the 147th Squadron on the left and the 27th Squadron on the right, toward balloons at Don Sermuz and Ancreville.
Eddie Rickenbacker’s Chapter 26 of Fighting the Flying Circus centers on Frank Luke, Werner, the Three-Fingered Lake, and the fight for Verdun on September 18 and 24.
On May 8, 1918, Eddie Rickenbacker becomes commander of Number One Flight after Captain Jimmy Hall disappears, and he immediately starts teaching pilots to make a circuit before landing from 15,000 feet.
Captain Eddie Rickenbacker frames Chapter 18, "Strafing the Draken," around German observation balloons that sit about 2,000 feet up and 2 miles behind the trenches.