THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 4

THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS

The Royal Flying Corps: a history. By G. Norris. Frederick Muller, 256 pp. and 18 plates, indexed.

This is entertaining reading for anyone with an interest in the early days of aviation. The author deals with military aviation in the world in general (including the use of balloons) up to 1914 and then solely with the Royal Flying Corps for the war years. With the Royal Naval Air Service the R.F.C. became the Royal Air Force in 1918, but the R.F.C’s story is carried on to the end of the hostilities. The main theme of the book concerns the way in which Britain caught up with the tremendous lead held by Germany and France in aviation pre-1914. It was not until the latter stages of the war that British pilots and aircraft finally equalled and then surpassed the Germans. The British had inferior machines and inferior training for much of the war. Courage and perseverance had to make up the difference and this was all too often not enough. In pre-war Britain, official military and Government minds were closed against the use of aircraft. In 1911, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff had announced that “Aviation is a useless and expensive fad ...." This remained the official view almost up to the outbreak of war. By 1913, a most unwilling British Government had been forced into military aviation, largely by public pressure, partly by a few farseeing but at that time renegade military minds. In that year the Minister announced that Britain had 14 military aircraft, three of which were under repair.

This was not very comforting news when at the same time the French were said to have 618 military aircraft and the Germans were known to have budgeted the equivalent of £7 million for their air forces for that year. The author’s case against the inflexible minds in the British Government and military command, makes their lack of action seem inexcusable.

There are two ways of tackling this sort of history. The most common way has been by giving blow by blow accounts of aerial combats, usually following the careers of the great “aces.” This is thrilling stuff but very incomplete history. The other way is to give all the facts and figures in the detailed, but sometimes necessarily dull, fashion of official war histories. Mr Norris says he is writing history and avoiding the stories of individuals, but in fact he tries for a bit of both and to some extent falls between two stools. The book could best be described as a collection of entertaining stories held together by and at times fairly superficial review of the history of the R.F.C. There is a wealth of stories of dog-flghts, bombing raids and various adventures and mishaps, each one given in great detail. There is a dearth of facts and figures in most cases so far as the overall scene is concerned. An exception is' the account of the Zeppelin . raids on England. Here all detail possible seems to have been given. There are other exceptions too. but in general, for the R.F.C. as a whole, the numbers involved, the cost m money, men and machines, the losses and the victories—these are largely not discussed.

Despite faults the book is enjoyable. Its episodic form means that it can be read in short snatches without getting any greater sense of discontinuity than is inherent in the book itself.