Abstract
It was inevitable that the Centenary of the First World War would be marked in many ways, and with many acts of remembrance. Part of this was always going to involve a plethora of books and journal articles covering everything from the disputed origins of the conflict through to its depiction in a hundred objects. The timing of the publication of To Rule the Winds fits into this mould, but there the caricature stops. The book represents the first volume in a single-author series which will take the story of the evolution of the British Fighter Force from inception through to the end of the Second World War. The author, Michael Fox, is a retired engineer who, as well as this highly ambitious series, intends to work on military aviation novels at the same time. This first volume covers the exciting years of innovation, risk, doubt and pioneering spirit leading up to the outbreak of the First World War. There is a consistent theme over this period, in many countries, where the tension between conservative administrators and pioneering entrepreneurs and adventurers was manifested in a struggle to show what these new machines were capable of, what they could be used for and what was going to be the most cost-effective way of accessing a capability which offered access to the third dimension. As the benefits of aerial reconnaissance became increasingly obvious, so too did the need to prevent the enemy from gaining the same advantage. His spotting aircraft would have to be denied access to airspace over friendly trenches. The airspace would need to be controlled, if necessary by air-to-air combat. Dedicated fighter aircraft would need to be developed and this will be the central focus for Fox’s series.
An author tackling military aviation is invariably faced with the challenge of satisfying a diverse audience which seeks coverage of the technical aspects of the aircraft; the ideas and doctrine behind their employment; the organizations in which they were employed; and the heroic deeds of the pilots. Fox, as could be expected from a retired engineer, deals with technical aspects of aircraft design and testing in an exceptionally thorough manner. His handling of bureaucratic challenges is also excellent. The United Kingdom tended to lag behind some other countries, notably France and Germany, in aircraft design and procurement. Part of the challenge was convincing the various committees of the likely benefits of aviation. The rate of change of design and manufacture compounded the problem which allowed the bureaucrats to wait for a stable design before making serious investment. This was further compounded by the airship-versus-aeroplane arguments, arguments that were given added piquancy by the reports coming from Germany of their Zeppelin trials. Fox blends the aircraft design saga with the organizational tale in a sound manner with many detailed tables and excellent selection of photographs and anecdotes. The comparison with development in other countries is to be commended.
As more pilots gained their Royal Aero Club certificates and aircraft became slightly safer to fly, an increasing amount of thought was given to their incorporation into military structures, culminating in the formation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. The process of incorporation included the formulation of early doctrine with the role of aviation being included in Field Service Regulations, interestingly under the watchful eye of Douglas Haig. The years before the First World War also saw the use of these machines in Army manoeuvres with considerable benefit accruing from the experience. Unfortunately, Fox does not take recent journal articles into full account of this aspect or doctoral theses on early doctrinal thinking. That said the book as a whole is well written, follows a very logical path and is extremely thorough in its technical coverage. The photographs and line drawings are also excellent, but the index is rather sparse.
The Royal Flying Corps by Peter Cooksley also has an excellent selection of photographs, many of which have not been previously published, supplemented by artists’ impressions, advertisements of the period, illustrations depicting badges of rank and so on. The book was originally published in 2004, reprinted in 2007 and then again in a timely manner to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the war. The book goes further than To Rule the Winds by taking the narrative from inception through to the incorporation of the RFC into the Royal Air Force in 1918. It inevitably goes into far less technical detail, but does cover the more social history aspects of the women’s services, ranks, pay and even the songs regularly performed by the air and ground crews.
There is room on most book shelves (or memory space equivalent) for both of these books not least as a highly valuable source of reference material. They both cover the narrative aspects of the development of military aviation, particularly in the UK, very well. But there is still room for the War in the Air official histories to cover the operational aspects and for further works on the development of doctrinal thinking. This theme could then be linked into the extensive bibliography on the development of strategic bombing theories.