Download or read book British Imperial Air Power written by Alex M Spencer and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British Imperial Air Power examines the air defense of Australia and New Zealand during the interwar period. It also demonstrates the difficulty of applying new military aviation technology to the defense of the global Empire and provides insight into the nature of the political relationship between the Pacific Dominions and Britain. Following World War I, both Dominions sought greater independence in defense and foreign policy. Public aversion to military matters and the economic dislocation resulting from the war and later the Depression left little money that could be provided for their respective air forces. As a result, the Empire’s air services spent the entire interwar period attempting to create a strategy in the face of these handicaps. In order to survive, the British Empire’s military air forces offered themselves as a practical and economical third option in the defense of Britain’s global Empire, intending to replace the Royal Navy and British Army as the traditional pillars of imperial defense.
Download or read book The Birth of Independent Air Power written by Malcolm Cooper and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In forming the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918, Britain created the world’s first independent air service. Britain entered the First World War with less than 200 ill-assorted flying machines divided between the army and the navy, but by the end of the war the RAF mustered almost 300,000 personnel and 22, 000 aircraft. Originally published in 1986, more than 65 years after the event, the decision to form the RAF remained poorly understood and Malcolm Cooper presented the first detailed modern analysis of its creation, shedding new light on the process by which Britain entered the air age. Set against the background of the build-up of air power during the First World War, the book explains how deepening political concern at failures in home air defence, public demands for retaliatory air action against Germany, problems of mobilization and expansion in the aircraft industry, and disagreements between the existing army and navy air services combined to create the conditions for an independent air force. The author argues that the pressures of war were insufficient to give real substance to the RAF’s independence and that its failure to escape from its wartime role as an ancillary service was also of crucial significance in the evolution of British air strategy in later years. Based on an extensive study of official documents and private papers and amply illustrated with contemporary photographs, this title will prove invaluable in understanding both strategic thinking in the Great War and the early development of a form of warfare which dominated military and naval operations in the twentieth century.
Download or read book Industry and Air Power written by Noel Sebastian Ritchie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author begins with a general survey of British aircraft manufacturing in the inter-war period. Policy, production, finance and contracts are examined, and the final chapter is concerned with the mobilization of the aircraft industry in 1939, and the emergency measures of 1940.
Download or read book The Royal Air Force in American Skies written by Tom Killebrew and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By early 1941, the war raged in Europe and Great Britain stood alone against the aerial might of Nazi Germany. Although much of the Royal Air Force's pilot training program had been relocated to Canada and other Dominion countries, the need for pilots remained acute. The British looked to the United States for possible assistance. Passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941 allowed for the training of British pilots in the United States and the formation of British Flying Training Schools. These unique schools were owned by American operators, staffed with American civilian instructors, supervised by British Royal Air Force officers, utilized aircraft supplied by the U.S. Army Air Corps, and used the RAF training syllabus. Within these pages, Tom Killebrew provides the first comprehensive history of all seven British Flying Training Schools located in Terrell, Texas; Lancaster, California; Miami, Oklahoma; Mesa, Arizona; Clewiston, Florida; Ponca City, Oklahoma; and Sweetwater, Texas. The first British students arrived in a still-neutral United States in June 1941. Many had never been in an airplane (or even driven an automobile), but they mastered the elements of flight, attended ground school classes, were introduced to the mysteries of the Link trainer and instrument flight, and then ventured out on cross country exercises. Students began night flying with the natural apprehension associated with taking off into a black sky, aided by only a few instruments, a flickering flare path, and limited ground references. Some students failed the periodic check flights and had to be eliminated from training, while others were killed during mishaps and are buried in local cemeteries. Those who finished the course became Royal Air Force pilots. But the story of the British Flying Training Schools is more than the story of young men learning to fly. These young British students would also forge a strong and long-lasting bond of friendship with the Americans they came to know. This bond would last not only during training, but would continue throughout the war, and still exist long after the end of the war.
Download or read book Air Power and Colonial Control written by David E. Omissi and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the world wars the main task of the RAF was to crush tribal rebellions against British rule. This study, based almost entirely on unpublished documents, shows how the independent peacetime role of air policing ensured the survival of the RAF during the lean financial times after WWI. Its analysis of rebellion and imperial violence is of interest to a broad audience. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book The Impact of Air Power on the British People and their Government 1909 14 written by Alfred Gollin and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study showing how the development of aircraft in the period before World War I affected the British people and their government. The author looks at technical military and naval development as well as the political, diplomatic and social aspects resulting from aircraft development.
Download or read book The Development of British Tactical Air Power 1940 1943 written by Matthew Powell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-10 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the development of tactical air power in Britain between 1940 and 1943 through a study of the Royal Air Force’s Army Co-operation Command. It charts the work done by the Command during its existence, and highlights the arguments between the RAF and Army on this contentious issue in Britain. Much is known about the RAF both in the years preceding and during the Second World War, particularly the exploits of Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands, yet the existence of the RAF’s Army Co-operation Command is little-known. Through extensive archival research, Matthew Powell maps the creation and work of the RAF’s Army Co-operation Command through an analysis of tactical air power developments during the First World War and inter-war periods, highlighting the debates and arguments that took place between the Air Ministry and the War Office.
Download or read book The Effectiveness of Airpower in the 20th Century written by John F. O'Connell and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2007-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume ... looks at the air arms of seven nations engaged in [World War II]: France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the USSR and the United States. Selected campaigns are discussed in detail to illustrate how national pre-war airpower doctrine was applied, and what results were achieved."--Preface
Download or read book Britain s Air Power written by Edwin Colston 1891- Shepherd and published by Hassell Street Press. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book The Royal Air Force in Texas written by Tom Killebrew and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the outbreak of World War II, British RAF officials sought to train aircrews outside of England, safe from enemy attack and poor weather. In the USA, six civilian flight schools dedicated themselves to instructing RAF pilots. Tom Killebrew explores the history of the Terrell Aviation School.
Download or read book Industry and Air Power written by Sebastian Ritchie and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1997 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author examines the relationship between industry and the state during the period immediately before the Second World War when increasing tension resulted in large government contracts.
Download or read book The Narrow Margin written by Derek Wood and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2010-06-02 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “For vividness and a sense of the overall flow of the battle . . . The Narrow Margin is excellent for the British side.”—Air & Space Magazine The Battle of Britain saved the country from invasion. If the RAF had been defeated all the efforts of the British Army and the Royal Navy would hardly have averted defeat in the face of complete German air superiority. With all Europe subjugated, Germany and Japan would later have met on the borders of India. This remarkable book traces the varied fortunes of the Royal Air Force in the 1930s, and shows how it readied itself for the mighty German onslaught in the summer of 1940 and won a great victory by the narrowest margins. It provides a comprehensive account of the Battle of Britain, including the day-by-day summaries of the battle. It is illustrated with photographs and maps, an appendix of the aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and by the Luftwaffe with schematic drawings, also a list of all pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain from July 10 to October 31, 1940. The authors are military aviation experts and The Narrow Margin has been published in translation in France and around the world. They also wrote A Summer for Heroes and Jane’s World Aircraft Recognition Handbook. “This book became the most used reference work on the Battle of Britain and formed the basis for the major feature film on the Battle . . . this entertaining book was soon accepted as the definitive title on its subject.”—Aeroplane “Most enlightening and useful . . . Unreservedly recommended.”—Military Aircraft Monthly
Download or read book Blueprint for Victory written by Greg Baughen and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2017-05-17 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Allies in Air Power written by Steven Paget and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-01-04 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past century, multinational military operations have become the norm; but while contributions from different nations provide many benefits—from expanded capability to political credibility—they also present a number of challenges. Issues such as command and control, communications, equipment standardization, intelligence, logistics, planning, tactics, and training all require consideration. Cultural factors present challenges as well, particularly when language barriers are involved. In Allies in Air Power, experts from around the world survey these operations from the birth of aviation to the present day. Chapters cover conflicts including World War I, multiple theaters of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Kosovo, the Iraq War, and various United Nations peacekeeping missions. Contributors also analyze the role of organizations such as the UN, NATO, and so-called "coalitions of the willing" in laying the groundwork for multinational air operations. While multinational military action has become commonplace, there have been few detailed studies of air power cooperation over a prolonged period or across multiple conflicts. The case studies in this volume not only assess the effectiveness of multinational operations over time, but also provide vital insights into how they may be improved in the future.
Download or read book The Next War in the Air written by Brett Holman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-17 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early twentieth century, the new technology of flight changed warfare irrevocably, not only on the battlefield, but also on the home front. As prophesied before 1914, Britain in the First World War was effectively no longer an island, with its cities attacked by Zeppelin airships and Gotha bombers in one of the first strategic bombing campaigns. Drawing on prewar ideas about the fragility of modern industrial civilization, some writers now began to argue that the main strategic risk to Britain was not invasion or blockade, but the possibility of a sudden and intense aerial bombardment of London and other cities, which would cause tremendous destruction and massive casualties. The nation would be shattered in a matter of days or weeks, before it could fully mobilize for war. Defeat, decline, and perhaps even extinction, would follow. This theory of the knock-out blow from the air solidified into a consensus during the 1920s and by the 1930s had largely become an orthodoxy, accepted by pacifists and militarists alike. But the devastation feared in 1938 during the Munich Crisis, when gas masks were distributed and hundreds of thousands fled London, was far in excess of the damage wrought by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941, as terrible as that was. The knock-out blow, then, was a myth. But it was a myth with consequences. For the first time, The Next War in the Air reconstructs the concept of the knock-out blow as it was articulated in the public sphere, the reasons why it came to be so widely accepted by both experts and non-experts, and the way it shaped the responses of the British public to some of the great issues facing them in the 1930s, from pacifism to fascism. Drawing on both archival documents and fictional and non-fictional publications from the period between 1908, when aviation was first perceived as a threat to British security, and 1941, when the Blitz ended, and it became clear that no knock-out blow was coming, The Next War in the Air provides a fascinating insight into the origins and evolution of this important cultural and intellectual phenomenon, Britain's fear of the bomber.
Download or read book Air Power and Armies written by Sir John Cotesworth Slessor and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2009-08-31 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of Sir John Cotesworth Slessor (1897–1979), one of Great Britain's most influential airmen Sir John Slessor played a significant role in building the World War II Anglo-American air power partnership as an air planner on the Royal Air Force Staff, the British Chiefs of Staff, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff. He coordinated allied strategy in 1940–41, helped create an Anglo-American bomber alliance in 1942, and drafted the compromise at the Casablanca Conference that broke a deadlock in Anglo-American strategic debate. Slessor was instrumental in defeating the U-boat menace as RAF Coastal Commander, and later shared responsibility for directing Allied air operations in the Mediterranean. Few aspects of the allied air effort escaped his influence: pilot training, aircraft procurement, and dissemination of operational intelligence and information all depended to a degree on Slessor. His influence on Anglo-American operational planning paved the way for a level of cooperation and combined action never before undertaken by the military forces of two great nations.
Download or read book Airpower Over Gallipoli 1915 1916 written by Sterling Michael Pavelec and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Airpower Over Gallipoli, 1915–1916, focuses on the men and machines in the skies over the Gallipoli Peninsula, their contributions to the campaign, and the ultimate outcomes of the role of airpower in the early stages of World War I. Based on extensive archival research, Sterling Michael Pavelec recounts the exploits of the handful of aviators during the Gallipoli campaign. As the contest for the Dardanelles Straits and the Gallipoli Peninsula raged, three Allied seaplane tenders and three land-based squadrons (two UK and one French) flew and fought against two mixed German and Ottoman squadrons (one land-based, one seaplane), the elements, and the fledgling technology. The contest was marked by experimentation, bravado, and airborne carnage as the men and machines plied the air to gain a strategic advantage in the new medium. As roles developed and missions expanded, the airmen on both sides tried to gain an advantage over their enemies. The nine-month aerial contest did not determine the outcome of the Gallipoli campaign, but the bravery of the pilots and new tactics employed foreshadowed the importance of airpower in battles to come. This book tells the lost story of the aviators and machines that opened a new domain for modern joint warfare. The dashing, adventurous, and frequently insouciant air commanders were misunderstood, misused, and neglected at the time, but they played an important role in the campaign and set the stage for joint military operations into the future. Their efforts and courage paved the way for modern joint operations at the birth of airpower.
