The Birth Of The Raf 1918

Author : Richard Overy
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 178 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2018-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780241274224

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The Birth of the RAF, 1918 by Richard Overy Pdf

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.

Author : Roy Conyers Nesbit
Publisher : Alan Sutton Publishing
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015047576072

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RAF by Roy Conyers Nesbit Pdf

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

Author : Gary Sheffield,Peter Gray
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 439 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2013-10-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9781441199522

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Changing War by Gary Sheffield,Peter Gray Pdf

In 1918, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) played a critical role in defeating the German army and thus winning the First World War. This 'Hundred Days' campaign (August to November 1918) was the greatest series of land victories in British military history. 1918 also saw the creation of the Royal Air Force, the world's first independent air service, from the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. Until recently, British histories of the First World War have tended to concentrate on the earlier battles of 1916 and 1917 and often underplayed this vitally important period. Changing War fills this significant gap in our knowledge by providing in-depth examinations of key aspects of the operations of the British Army, the Royal Air Force and its antecedents in the climactic year of the First World War. Written by a group of established historians and emerging scholars it sheds light not only on 1918, but on the revolutionary changes in warfare that took place at that time.

Author : Malcolm Cooper
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2021-03-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000338973

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The Birth of Independent Air Power by Malcolm Cooper Pdf

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.

Author : John William Ransom Taylor,Philip J. R. Moyes
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1968
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:1036812468

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Pictorial History of the R.A.F.: 1918-1939 by John William Ransom Taylor,Philip J. R. Moyes Pdf

Author : FREDETTE RH
Publisher : Smithsonian
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 1991-04-17
Category : London (England)
ISBN : 1560980168

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SKY ON PB by FREDETTE RH Pdf

Based on firsthand accounts from British and German sources, this volume explores all aspects of the first systematic strategic air campaign in history, including the impact it had on the strategy and conduct of World War II. Originally published in 1976 (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), and reprinted with a new introduction by Tom D. Crouch. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Max Arthur (Military historian)
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:655379782

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There Shall be Wings by Max Arthur (Military historian) Pdf

Author : J. W. R. Taylor
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 1968
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:924411014

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Pictorial History of the R.A.F. by J. W. R. Taylor Pdf

Author : Ian M. Philpott
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 1351 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2013-12-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473831704

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The Birth of the Royal Air Force by Ian M. Philpott Pdf

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.

Author : John T. Smith
Publisher : Amberley Publishing Limited
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2010-06-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781445620343

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Gone to Russia to Fight by John T. Smith Pdf

A remarkable period in the early history of the RAF covered in print for the very first time.

Author : Richard Overy
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2018-05-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780393652307

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RAF: The Birth of the World's First Air Force by Richard Overy Pdf

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.

Author : Ian M. Burns
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Aircraft carriers
ISBN : 1781553653

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The RNAS and the Birth of the Aircraft Carrier 1914-1918 by Ian M. Burns Pdf

The Royal Naval Air Service's origins were as the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps in April 1912, but did not become a separate service until 1 July 1914. On the outbreak of war in 1914, the service expanded to include service on land, providing support of the Royal Naval Division in Belgium, to the RFC and as one of the early practitioners of strategic bombing. Yet, from its early days, the RNAS had set out to create a force operating aircraft in support of and in association with the Fleet. The RNAS and the Birth of the Aircraft Carrier 1914-1918 traces the development and operational use of aircraft serving with the fleet. It follows the training of personnel and the struggle to produce suitable aircraft and weapons, including the evolution of the aircraft carrier. Nonetheless, the constant thread throughout is the operational history of the RNAS over the North Sea with both the Grand Fleet and Harwich Force. Commencing over Cuxhaven on Christmas Day 1914 and ending with two pivotal operations which determined the future of naval aviation.

Author : James Pugh
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2017-05-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317016892

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The Royal Flying Corps, the Western Front and the Control of the Air, 1914–1918 by James Pugh Pdf

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.

Author : The Staff
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 48 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2009-02-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1847348513

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Fighting in the Air, April 1918 by The Staff Pdf

Published in April 1918, the month that the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force, this little official booklet issued by the General Staff is a general introduction for pilots of the aims of aerial combat. With sections on such topics as the necessity of offensive action; attacking ground targets with bombs and machine-guns; the importance of surprise and manouevre; the evolution of formation flying; and aerial weapons this gives a clear view of how aerial fighting had evolved in the course of the Great War at the very hour of the RAF s birth.

Author : Julian Hale
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 65 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2018-03-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9781784422448

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The RAF by Julian Hale Pdf

For a hundred years the Royal Air Force has been at the forefront of the UK's defences. In the 1920s and 1930s, the RAF protected Britain's empire; during the Second World War it played a key role in defeating the Axis; and through the 1950s and 1960s it was a key part of Britain's nuclear deterrent. Julian Hale examines the history of the RAF through its organisation, personnel, aircraft and campaigns, from the biplanes of the First World War, through its 'Finest Hour' in 1940 and the dawn of the jet age to today's hi-tech aircraft and the emerging role of the unmanned aerial vehicle. Enriched with personal accounts and a wealth of photographs, this book provides a concise introduction to the world's first air force.