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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.
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.
British Air Power demonstrates how the Royal Air Force sought to adapt in regard to the roles it could play and the conflicts in which it could be used, as well as the evolution of air power doctrine at a time of rapid changes in national politics and in the international arena. The development of new concepts and theories, the evaluation of operational experience, the political environment and budgetary cuts, and the role of academics and personalities in development of doctrine are thus all explored to show changes in strategic thinking regarding air power. Fedorchak further examines the influence of jointery – the process of co-operation between the army, navy and air force – on thinking, conceptualising, teaching and using air power in recent operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. A contemporary complement to more historical studies, British Air Power provides a very detailed look at the development of air-land doctrine in the RAF since the turn of the century.
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
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.
Fully illustrated analysis of all World War II aircraft in British military service, including full descriptions and specifications, hundreds of action photos and highly accurate, full-color artwork.
This book aims to explain air power to both military and civilian audiences in an accessible manner, approaching the topic in a balanced and systematic way. The past 100 years illustrates that air power is an inevitable feature of any type of modern warfare. It has a key role to play in any of the three main operational environments: conventional (inter-state) wars, peace-support operations, and counterinsurgencies. This book examines the strengths and challenges of using air power in these situations, and each type of operation is explained using modern and historical examples, with an emphasis on the relevant lessons for the contemporary and future use of air power. The book also looks into the complexity of media coverage of air warfare and changes in the public perception of air power in recent years. The specifics of structuring national air forces is also discussed, along with the future of air power based on current trends. One of the enduring themes in the book is the necessity of inter-service and cross-domain integration, emphasizing the increasingly important role of cyber and space domains in the future of network-centric warfare. This book will be essential reading for students of air power and air warfare, and recommended reading for students of international security, strategic studies, defence studies, and foreign policy.
In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.
The architect of the successful air strategy which led to Allied victory Arthur Tedder, who was knighted and raised to the peerage for his contributions to the Allied victory in World War II, served in the British air force in World War I and played an important role in professionalizing and organizing British air forces between the two world wars. During World War II, he held a succession of increasingly vital air force posts. In addition to his achievements as Air Commander-in-Chief in the North African theater early in the war, Tedder’s most lasting contribution was as Deputy Supreme Commander under Dwight D. Eisenhower. He deserves much credit for keeping the Allied command functioning and harmonious. He was also the architect of the successful air strategy Eisenhower adopted for the Normandy invasion of 1944, which departed from both the British and American existing doctrine and models by concentrating on German rail systems rather than on either civilian or industrial targets.
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.