Pictorial History of the RAF, Volume One, 1918 - 1939

THERE HAVE been many histories of the Royal Air Force, but never one like this. The evolution and achievements of Britain's air forces are put into new perspective against a background of the changing world of our twentieth century. Not only do we learn why - as well as how - the R.A.F. and its predecessors gained victory in the great air battles of two World Wars and countless smaller wars ; we see how they blazed a trail across oceans and deserts for the airlines to follow, played a major part in creating America's great modern aviation industry, kept the peace for two desperately dangerous decades after the Second World War and, simultaneously, learned how to use new kinds of aircraft to bring new life to hundreds of men, women and children who would otherwise have died through sickness, shipwreck or starvation. Published to mark the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the Royal. Air Force, on April 1st, 1918, this superbly - illustrated three - volume work, of which this is the first, forms a unique, scrupulously accurate and highly readable tribute to the Service without which none of us might have been alive to read it.