The Birth of the RAF, 1918

Richard Overy has a “deserved reputation as a masterful historian of air power”, said Leo Mckinstry in the Literary Review. In this “concise but fascinating” book, he describes the creation, exactly a century ago, of the “world’s first independent air force” – the RAF. The service was formed by merging the “air arms” of the Army and the Navy, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service. Both had played an increasingly important role in the war effort, but by 1917, after a series of German air raids on London, it was clear that an independent force would better serve the country’s strategic interests. Yet creating the service was “not an easy task”: the move met with fierce opposition, especially from RFC commander Hugh Trenchard, who argued that the job of military aircraft was to provide support for the Army’s ground operations. The RAF finally came into existence, “with little fanfare”, on 1 April 1918, and fought – without great distinction – in the final months of the War.

This “admirable” book conveys just how quickly aviation developed, said Lewis Jones in The Daily Telegraph. Britain’s first powered flight only took place in 1908; bombs first fell on the country seven years later. In the First World War, air combat went from being a fringe concern to a cornerstone of strategy: Britain lost 35,973 aircraft and 16,623 airmen during the conflict (compared with 1,023 aircraft and 1,644 airmen in the Battle of Britain). It’s a “fascinating” subject, but Overy focuses too much on the “mechanics of institution building”, and ignores the more thrilling aspects, said Lawrence James in The Times. There is little about “daredevil fighter aces” or “intrepid pioneer aviators and aviatrixes”. As a result, it rather struggles to come to life.