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 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 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 464 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 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 National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 0 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 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 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 The Birth of the Royal Air Force written by Ian M. Philpott and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-12-09 with total page 1351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ian Philpott presents us here with a compendium of facts, operational histories and photo illustrations, combined to create a comprehensive account of the early years of the Royal Air Force. Illustrated throughout, it features details of all military operations from 1914 to 1918 which impacted upon the organisation. Also included are operational details of the Independent Bomber Force throughout 1918, a supplementary historical strand that is sure to appeal to Aviation enthusiasts with a taste for features of niche focus. Details of the airfields, landing grounds, seaplane bases and various other landmarks of this era are given, and readers are encouraged to use the work as a reference book, being as it is a weighty tome of encyclopedic scope. Sure to make a welcome addition to any aviation enthusiasts library, this well-researched piece of work has been a long time in the making. Philpott brings his typical flare to the project, leaving no stone unturned when it comes to this dynamic, defining period of Royal Air Force history.As featured in the East Kent Mercury and Essence Magazine.
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 Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 206 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 Royal Air Force written by John Buckley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1918, the Royal Air Force became the first major independent air force in the world. Formed to serve a strategic need in the most intensive war that Britain had then fought, the RAF continued in the inter-war era to play a key role in the political and diplomatic world, and in defending the Empire. During the Second World War, the RAF was pivotal in defending Britain from invasion in the Battle of Britain, and then in leading the assault on the Axis powers, most notably through the contentious bomber offensive against Germany. In the post-war world, the RAF adapted and developed into a force to meet the needs of the United Kingdom during the Cold War, the retreat from Empire, and most recently in the move to coalition warfare against low intensity threats, all against a backdrop of diminishing resources and shifting priorities. This is the story of the RAF over the first century of its existence: how it has confronted the many challenges and threats it has faced — from the Luftwaffe in 1940, through the spectre of nuclear holocaust in the Cold War, to the fight against terrorism in the 21st century — and how it has contributed to the defence of the United Kingdom throughout that period.
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 The Birth of the Royal Air Force written by John Adrian Chamier and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 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 The Growth of Fighter Command 1936 1940 written by T. C. G. James and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with the development of Britain's air defences during the years leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War, and the development of the system during the early period of the war, leading up to the Battle of Britain.
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
