Download or read book Gone to Russia to Fight written by John T. Smith and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A remarkable period in the early history of the RAF covered in print for the very first time.

Download or read book The Royal Flying Corps the Western Front and the Control of the Air 1914 1918 written by James Pugh and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the middle of 1918 the British Army had successfully mastered the concept of ’all arms’ warfare on the Western Front. This doctrine, integrating infantry, artillery, armoured vehicles and - crucially - air power, was to prove highly effective and formed the basis of major military operations for the next hundred years. Yet, whilst much has been written on the utilisation of ground forces, the air element still tends to be studied in isolation from the army as a whole. In order to move beyond the usual 'aircraft and aces' approach, this book explores the conceptual origins of the control of the air and the role of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) within the British army. In so doing it addresses four key themes. First, it explores and defines the most fundamental air power concept - the control of the air - by examining its conceptual origins before and during the First World War. Second, it moves beyond the popular history of air power during the First World War to reveal the complexity of the topic. Third, it reintegrates the study of air power during the First World War, specifically that of the RFC, into the strategic, operational, organisational, and intellectual contexts of the era, as well as embedding the study within the respective scholarly literatures of these contexts. Fourth, the book reinvigorates an entrenched historiography by challenging the usually critical interpretation of the RFC’s approach to the control of the air, providing new perspectives on air power during the First World War. This includes an exploration of the creation of the RAF and its impact on the development of air power concepts.

Download or read book Black September 1918 written by Norman Franks and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-09-27 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors of Bloody April 1917 present a new volume of facts, photos, and analysis covering aerial combat in the last days of the Great War. Fifteen months after the events of April 1917, more battles had been fought, won and lost on both sides, but now the American strength was feeding in to France with both men and material. With the mighty push on the French/American Front at St. Mihiel on September 12 and then along the Meuse-Argonne Front from the 26th, once more masses of men and aircraft were put into the air. They were opposed by no less a formidable German fighter force than had the squadrons in April 1917, although the numbers were not in their favor. Nevertheless, the German fighter pilots were able to inflict an even larger toll of British, French, and American aircraft shot down, making this the worst month for the Allied flyers during the whole of World War I—and this just a mere six weeks from the war’s bloody finale. This book analyzes the daily events throughout September with the use of lists of casualties and claims from both sides. It also contains seven detailed appendices examining the victory claims of all the air forces that fought during September 1918. Although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly who was fighting who high above the trenches, by poring over maps and carefully studying almost all the surviving records, the picture slowly begins to emerge with deadly accuracy. Black September 1918 is a profusely illustrated and essential reference piece to understanding one of the crucial months of war in the skies.

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 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Packed with drama, both military and political.… It will surely prove definitive.” —Lewis Jones, Daily Telegraph This compact, masterful work by an outstanding historian marks a pivotal moment in military history: the birth of Britain’s Royal Air Force. Writing with great clarity, Richard Overy shows how the RAF emerged from the deadly stalemate of trench warfare during World War I. With German bombers attacking British cities by 1917, Prime Minister David Lloyd George and his minister of munitions, Winston Churchill, navigated the organizational breakthrough that made the RAF an independent force in spring 1918. The RAF would prove highly influential in the development of air power around the world.

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 The Birth of the RAF 1918 written by Richard Overy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short, brilliant account of the birth of the RAF for the centenary of its founding The dizzying pace of technological change in the early 20th century meant that it took only a little over ten years from the first flight by the Wright Brothers to the clash of fighter planes in the Great War. A period of terrible, rapid experiment followed to gain a brief technological edge. By the end of the war the British had lost an extraordinary 36,000 aircraft and 16,600 airmen. The RAF was created in 1918 as a revolutionary response to this new form of warfare - a highly contentious decision (resisted fiercely by both the army and navy, who had until then controlled all aircraft) but one which had the most profound impact, for good and ill, on the future of warfare. Richard Overy's superb new book shows how this happened, against the backdrop of the first bombing raids against London and the constant emergency of the Western Front. The RAF's origins were as much political as military and throughout the 1920s still provoked bitter criticism. Published to mark the centenary of its founding this is an invaluable book, filled with new and surprising material on this unique organization.

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 A Contemptible Little Flying Corps written by I. McInnes and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2012-03-30 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many books have been written about pilots of the Royal Flying Corps but the men on the ground, who kept the planes in the air and the guns firing, have been sadly neglected - and yet their role was a vital one. This truly remarkable book, the production of which must have seemed an impossible task, has more than remedied the situation. The authors have managed to locate all the non-commissioned airmen who enlisted in the RFC prior to the outbreak of war in August 1914, and for each one they have provided a mini-biography. The length of each entry varies, available records being what they are, but detail is provided for over 1,400 men. For those who became pilots, details of their certificates are given. Statistics include the establishment of the Corps at various times and there is a list of non-commissioned ranks as well as notes on uniforms, badges etc. There is a full record of works consulted at the Public Record Office and an excellent bibliography.

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 Raf 100 written by Mike Lepine and published by Danann Books. This book was released on 2018-04-16 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: RAF 100 celebrates and commemorates 100 years of the Royal Air Force with access to rare RAF archives.

Download or read book Sir Frederick Sykes and the Air Revolution 1912 1918 written by Eric Ash and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study presents Sir Frederick Sykes, Chief of the Air Staff of Britain's Royal Air Force during World War I, as playing a fundamental part in organizing and leading British aviation from 1912 to the end of 1918.

Download or read book Air Force Combat Units of World War II written by Maurer Maurer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1961 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Royal Naval Air Service 1912 1918 written by Brad King and published by Howell Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Edited by Barry Ketley; Colour artwork by David Howley; Badges by Mark Rolfe; Maps by Steve Longland; Design by Hikoki Publications; Printed in Great Britain by Hillmans, Frome, Somerset"--T.p. verso.

Download or read book The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III written by Jens Müller and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-03-05 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling, first-person account of one of the most famous prison escapes of World War II. Jens Müller was one of only three men who successfully escaped from Stalag Luft III on the night of March 24, 1944—the breakout that later became the basis for the famous film The Great Escape. His memoir tells how Müller, a pilot in one of the RAF’s Norwegian squadrons, was shot down by the Luftwaffe over the English Channel in June 1942. After some days at sea in his Spitfire’s life raft, he made it to land in Belgium but was soon captured by the occupying Germans and sent as a prisoner of war to Stalag Luft III (in what is now Zagan, Poland). Müller vividly describes life in the camp, how the escapes were planned, and relates the compelling story of his personal breakout. Together with Per Bergsland, he managed to make it to the coast and stowed away on a ship to Gothenburg, Sweden. The two men eventually reached RAF Leuchars base in Scotland.

Download or read book A Concise History of the U S Air Force written by Stephen Lee McFarland and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1997 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.

Download or read book British Air Forces 1914 18 1 written by Andrew Cormack and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2000-07-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The outbreak of World War I found the British Army's Royal Flying Corps with just over 200 fragile, unarmed reconnaissance aircraft, and a uniformed strength of just over 2,000 all ranks; the Royal Naval Air Service had some 50 seaplanes. By the Armistice of 1918 the unified Royal Air Force was the largest in the world, with about 22,650 aeroplanes and 27,330 men operating from some 700 bases. This first in a two-part study describes and illustrates, in unprecedented detail, the uniforms of the RFC and RNAS in 1914-18-20. A detailed and interesting study.

Download or read book RAF written by Roy Conyers Nesbit and published by Alan Sutton Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relates the history of the Royal Air Force (RAF) through some 450 color and bandw photos and paintings, many reproduced here for the first time. Each illustration is accompanied by a detailed caption that supports the main text. Coverage spans its formation in 1918, through the interwar period, WWII, and precarious peace of the nuclear age, and concludes with a look at today's RAF poised on the edge of the millennium. Distributed by Books International. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR