[Graham Boak]

There certainly do exist such accounts in French: there has been a long running dispute/discussion over the claims made by the French Air Force at the time (over 1000 destroyed). Not least about the effect of this on the following Battle of Britain.

I was lucky enough to learn French at school, and can recommend reading these works in the original. After using it not at all after a low pass at O level (thanks to talking about St Exupery in the oral, I feel), I started using it because of the magazine Air Fan, which stood out in quality above the majority of the UK magazines at the time. What I discovered is that the technical language/jargon of military aviation is readily translatable, and after some initial slowness I discovered that I could cope quite easily. I'm sure that I missed - and still do miss - the more subtle points of grammar and meaning, but it isn't that hard to get by. This is not "literature", after all. You are not translating Proust or Voltaire.

If you have any French at all, then pick up a few of the more interesting magazines and give it a go. Keep a dictionary to hand at first, but after a few months you'll find it easier than you fear.

PS I can add that I have coped similarly, if less easily, with Italian and Spanish works despite no training at all in those languages (Ok, some limited Latin) because the common Romance languages have much in common. Any knowledge of one will help with the others.