The Hunting Falcon was written by Hans-Joachim Buddecke, a top German First World War ace. Though his autobiography of his experiences as a combat pilot were published in the Spring of 1918, in the last year of the war, Buddecke did not see his book in print; he was shot down over the Western Front on 10 March 1918. His father was left to write the forward. Hans Buddecke's journey to war started in America in 1913-1914, where he was working in Indianapolis at his uncle's car factory. A new immigrant to the United States, he was very much part of the German community of Indianapolis. Ambitious, he learned to fly at Cicero Flying Field near Chicago. He then lined up Indianapolis investors to establish a new plane manufacturing company. The deal was sealed just as war broke out in Europe in 1914. Buddecke then travelled to New York and, disguised as a man from Alsace-Lorraine, travelled to Italy on a Greek ship to bypass the British blockade. He was one of the few Germans in America who