The Royal Air Force of World War Two in Colour

Beautifully illustrated, this amazing book will show you both R.A.F. aircraft and personnel through well - known and unknown colour photographs during the Second World War.

Until the late 1940's colour photographs were, if not rare, a novelty in the United Kingdom and even then were usually only available as transparencies for projection or viewing with a magnifier. Their inclusion in printed works was limited by the high cost of the reproduction process. A number of techniques for producing colour photographs had been introduced during the early part of the century, but not until the launching of Kodakchrome in the United States in 1935 was a truly viable colour  product - viable in terms of process and cost - marketed. From the commercially available 35mm stock, a limited amount had reached Britain prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Also available in the immediate pre - war years was Dufaycolor, produced in England, and Agfa, from European sources.

Particularly where British forces are concerned, the photographic record of the 1939 - 45 war years  is predominantly in black and white and comes from the work of official or accredited Press photographers. In fact, the use of private cameras on military installations was forbidden, although in some units this regulation was not strictly adhered to. Additionally, monochrome film gradually became scarce : by the mid - war years it was largely unobtainable by civilians.

( ... ) Pictures showing aircraft crewed and tended by smiling young men in a colourful setting may belie the underlying tragedies : a subject tracing has revealed that many of the individals depicted were shortly to die and, similarly, many of the aircraft to be destroyed. The casualty rate in the wartime R.A.F. was high and included many airmen from Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the colonies who aligned themselves with Britain and joined the R.A.F., while others served in the air forces of their own Commonwealth countries.