Just Finished Reading: A Brief History of - The Royal Flying Corps in World War 1 by Ralph Barker (FP: 1995)

I have long been fascinated by WW1 aerial exploits. A mere decade or so after the first manned flight people flew around in barely airworthy craft trying to kill each other with whatever weapons came to hand. Pretty soon they had mounted machine guns and figured out how to shoot safely through the propeller allowing the pilot to aim the whole plane at the enemy which made things a lot easier than firing sideways or over the top of the wing as previous attempts had tried. So began the age of the classic fighter pilots, Mannock, Ball, Guynemer and their opponents Boelcke, Immelmann and, of course, Von Richthofen. Rather refreshingly this fascinating (and not at all brief at 481 pages) account of the war in the air on the Western Front did not dwell too much on these legendary characters. This was a much fuller account and gave more than adequate room to the less glamorous aspects of that unforgiving conflict. Not only was the highly dangerous methods of attacking observation balloons discussed in detail but time was spent outlining the problems with training back home – painfully repeated during the much shorter Battle of Britain over 20 years later – as well as the squadrons kept back for Home Defence against the growing threat from German airships.

What interested me most though was something I was unaware of and believed to only have come into existence during the blitzkrieg attacks early in WW2 – close air support and co-operation with ground troops. I had no idea that the RFC worked that closely with both advancing and (during the German breakthrough in 1918) retreating Allied forces which often tipped the balance locally and which the German forces could never adequately replicate. Interesting German communications of the time repeatedly complain about Allied attacks on their ground troops and the effect is was having on them. I actually laughed out loud at one description where a German NCO was hospitalised after being hit by the wheel of an attacking British fighter – which was very much still attached to the plane in question. Now that’s what you call CLOSE air support!

Once the Front had settled into unremitting and static trench warfare another aspect of air warfare came to the fore – artillery spotting both for correcting shot and finding the targets in the first place through photo-reconnaissance. Both of these activities where perfected to a very high degree by the RFC and are credited with saving countless thousands of lives during the murderous attacks on enemy trenches.

WW1 was a grim war by any standards. Pilot life expectancy during the worst period in 1917 was measured in weeks – and that was the average. Barker related more than one sad story where men arrived at their new airfield fresh from their recognisably inadequate training only to be thrown into the fight and dying before they had unpacked their kit or anyone had learnt their names. These where not isolated incidents but a brutal fact of a brutal conflict. Dripping with incredible stories of incredibly brave men this is as gripping as any war novel and will keep anyone interested in the First World War turning the pages until the very end. Much more on WW1 – both in fiction and non-fiction to come. Highly recommended.