Download or read book The Royal Air Force written by Michael Napier and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-02-22 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fully illustrated history of the Royal Air Force while on operations, publishing to mark the centenary of its foundation in World War I. The world's first independent air force, the Royal Air Force celebrates its centenary in 2018. In the 100 years since the end of World War I, the service has been involved in almost continuous operations around the globe, giving the RAF the longest and most wide-ranging history of any air force in the world. But over the years this history has also become entangled with myths. The Royal Air Force: A Centenary of Operations sets the record straight, dispelling these as it uncovers – in both words and photographs – the true exploits and accomplishments of RAF personnel over the last 100 years. From its formation as an independent service in the dying days of World War I, its desperate fight against the Axis air forces in World War II, to its commitments during both the Cold War and modern times, this is the complete story of how the RAF has defended Britain for a century.
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 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 Great Escape from Stalag Luft III written by Jens Müller and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2019-01-30 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story behind the real “Great Escape” from a World War II Nazi POW camp by the veteran Norwegian pilot who lived it. Jens Müller was one of only three men who successfully escaped from Stalag Luft III (now in Poland) in March, 1944—the break that later became the basis for the famous film The Great Escape. Together with Per Bergsland, another Norwegian POW, he stowed away on a ship to Gothenburg, Sweden. The escapees sought out the British consulate and were flown from Stockholm to Scotland. From there they were sent by train to London and shortly afterwards to “Little Norway” in Canada. Müller’s book about his wartime experiences was first published in Norwegian in 1946 titled Tre kom Tilbake (Three Came Back). This new edition is the first English translation and will correct the impression—set by the film—that the men who escaped successfully were American and Australian. In a vivid informative memoir, Müller details what life in the camp was like and how the escapes were planned and executed, and tells the story of his personal breakout and success reaching RAF Leuchars in Scotland. “The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III offers a fascinating look at the 1940s, recapturing the feel of both the war and postwar era.” —The Daily News
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 History of the Royal Air Force written by Michael Sharpe and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Battle of Britain written by T.C.G. James and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second volume of the classified history of air defence in Great Britain. Written while World War II was still being fought, the account has an analysis of the defensive tactics of Fighter Command, and attempts a day-by-day analysis of the action as it took place.
Download or read book History of the Royal Air Force written by John Dunstan Richard Rawlings and published by Crescent. This book was released on 1984 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A full narrative and pictorial account of Britain's RAF details the service's dramatic past and the numerous aircraft that RAF pilots have flown and covers the Falklands actions and new equipment
Download or read book Official History of the Royal Air Force 1935 1945 Vol I Fight at Odds Illustrated Edition written by Denis Richards and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes, 21 maps/diagrams and 17 Illustrations/photos The Royal Air Force is the oldest independent air force in the world, having gained its spurs over the trenches of Flanders in the First World War it was officially established in 1918. However it was during the Second World War that it would achieve its greatest successes yet, from an inauspicious start following post war budget cuts it would rise to become a decisive factor in the campaign to remove the Nazis from Europe and the Japanese from mainland Asia. The three volume Official History gives a sound and broad narrative of all of the campaigns, actions and engagements that the Royal Air Force was party to across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. The text was set out in manageable chapters, each dealing with a particular episode of the struggle against Fascism; and is written in an easy and accessible style free from the specialised vocabulary of flying or aerial combat. The first volume covers the period - 1939-1942; including The Initial Phoney War period. The Norway Expedition The Battle of France The Battle of Britain The Blitz The opening stages of the Battle of the Atlantic The opening stages of the North African Campaign.
Download or read book The History of the Royal Air Force written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beskriver RAF fra 1918 til begyndelsen af 1980'erne.
Download or read book Air power and colonial control written by David Enrico Omissi and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book RAF The Birth of the World s First Air Force written by Richard Overy and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A great historian’s masterful account of the origins of air power in the RAF. The birth of the Royal Air Force during World War I marked a pivotal moment in modern military and political history. With Europe’s western front frozen in a bloody stalemate of trench warfare, both sides sought some means of directly attacking enemy resources and morale. The new technologies of air power were used at first for reconnaissance of enemy positions for artillery strikes. By 1917 German bombers had begun raids on British cities, including an attack on London that killed hundreds, with eighteen schoolchildren among the casualties. Public outrage in Britain sparked a call for air defense and spurred political support for an independent air ministry. Prime Minister David Lloyd George and his minister of munitions, Winston Churchill, led the debates over how to shape Britain’s air power during the war. The immediate path to an independent RAF is a fascinating story of political, bureaucratic, and personal rivalries. By the end of World War I, the RAF was launching effective bombing campaigns on industrial and military targets in western Germany. It survived postwar retrenchment thanks largely to Churchill, who as colonial secretary gave the RAF special responsibility for enforcing imperial control in the Middle East, especially in the new League of Nations mandates of Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq. The RAF helped to shape the way air power developed not just in Britain but notably in Germany and the United States. The massive bombing campaigns of World War II against civilian and industrial targets in major cities are rooted in this history. This compact book shows a master historian at work. In command of the archival sources, at home in all dimensions of the story, Richard Overy crafts an engrossing narrative of this turning point in our history.
Download or read book The Royal Air Force written by M. J. Armitage and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of the Royal Air Force written by Mike Sharpe and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The History of the RAF written by Christopher Chant and published by Grange Books. This book was released on 1997 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Chant's The History of the RAF is an authoritative account of the RAF through the last 54 years, culminating in the Gulf War. Carefully integrated text and photographs highlight the linked development of the service and its aircraft
Download or read book A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I written by Ralph Barker and published by Constable. This book was released on 2002 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text tells the story of the Royal Flying Corps, and its part in all the major battles of World War I, from Bloody April 1917 through Third Ypres and Passchendaele to the chaotic retreat from Ludendorff's offensive.
Download or read book The Royal Air Force at Home written by Ian Watson and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-06-19 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Military public relations endeavors ultimately seek to build a sense of common interests and aims, and so generally foster good relations with the people they defend, and there in ensure a stable society. The armed forces when engaging on any public relations exercise, have traditionally sought to provide an entertaining spectacle. For years this has been typified by parades, bands, mock battles, drill displays and other relevant feats of military prowess which have captured the imagination of the public and inspired potential recruits. The 20th Century brought a new dimension to the field of warfare and subsequently added a new strand to the fabric of public ceremony and displays by the armed forces. That new dimension was the arrival of powered flight.Display flying began within five years of the Wright Brothers making their milestone first flight. The first events staged in Britain which centered on demonstrations by flying machines, were organized by the town councils of Blackpool and Doncaster and were held within days of each other in October 1909. 1920 was the year that the first of the famed and legendary Hendon Air Pageants was staged, and this is where military air shows traditionally began. The Hendon Displays were organized and staged by the still fledging Royal Air Force and it was probably due in no small part to the prestige and spectacle of this fresh new dimension of military pageantry, together with other like events held at RAF airfields through the next two decades, that the very existence of the RAF was saved from the threat of abolition. The history of the RAF's commitment (one that compares almost uniquely with other air forces) toward display flying through the years after World War II has now come of age. This account of their record in this often overlooked but then again traditional field of military customs, describes and illustrates the major public RAF events since 1920."
