scholarly journals Debate, Discussion, and Disagreement: A Reassessment of the Development of British Tactical Air Power Doctrine, 1919–1940

2019 ◽  
pp. 096834451982978
Author(s):  
Matthew Powell
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Operational Experience ◽  
World War ◽  
Air Power ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Service Basis ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Second World

This article investigates the work conducted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the development of tactical air power in the interwar period. It analyses the RAF’s theoretical doctrinal thinking during the period along with exercises conducted on a joint Service basis to further develop these ideas in practice. It will argue that, rather than neglecting tactical air power during this period as is the accepted view, much good theoretical work was done that formed a theoretical and intellectual basis for the further development of tactical air power in the light of operational experience during the Second World War.

4. The Second World War

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Frank Ledwidge
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Air Power ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Us Army ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Effect ◽  
Second World

‘The Second World War: air operations in the West’ considers the air capabilities of the main actors of the Second World War including the Polish air force, the German Luftwaffe, the Soviet air force, Britain’s Royal Air Force, and the US Army Air Corps. It discusses the strategies employed by the different forces during the various stages of the war, including securing the control of the air during the Battle of Britain in 1940, which demonstrated that a defensive air campaign could have strategic and political effect. The improving technology throughout the war is discussed along with role of air power at sea, and the results and controversy of the bombing war in Europe.

Accident Conscious: Accounting for Flying Accidents in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War

2019 ◽  
pp. 096834451983730
Author(s):  
Peter Hobbins ◽  
Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Operational Effectiveness ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Us Army ◽  
Army Air Force ◽  
Royal Australian Air Force ◽  
Second World

During the Second World War the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) systematically categorized every operational and non-operational flying accident. Despite a broader service focus on ‘pilot error’, our comprehensive database of 601 RAAF Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk accident reports suggests that non-human factors were perceived as more determinative than human failings. Incorporating wartime Royal Air Force and US Army Air Force analyses, this article compares RAAF interpretations of accident statistics with our data and a detailed exploration of formal inquiries into ten fatal Kittyhawk crashes. Accounting for air force accidents negotiated a dynamic balance between heuristic integrity, operational effectiveness, and political prudence.

Spitfires Sprouting in the Burmese Spring: The Real-life Quest for Historic Fantasy Aircraft in Contemporary Myanmar

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-146
Author(s):  
Jane M. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Air Force ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Military History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Holy Grail ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Military Regimes ◽  
Second World

AbstractIn 2013, a group of British aviation archaeologists began excavating in Myanmar in search of some 140 mint-condition crated Royal Air Force (RAF) Spitfire Mk XIV aircraft. According to their story, at the end of the Second World War, Allied forces in Burma were left with these unassembled aircraft. Without the funds to send them home, but unwilling to let the planes fall into enemy hands, they buried the crated planes in Mingaladon, Meiktila and Myitkyina. Like legends of pirate treasure, the story of these buried Spitfires carries with it fantastic aura and intrigue. For aviation fans, the pirate's gold is an iconic aircraft, meaningful in patriotic narratives for its role in the Battle of Britain. This paper will discuss this story as a form of military history folklore which is stoked by the orientalist perception that Burma/Myanmar's decades of military regimes and purported isolation indirectly ‘“preserved” the crated aircraft in time. As this paper will demonstrate, Burmese and others in Southeast Asia have their own legends of buried war materiel and treasure. This point, though largely lost on British aviation enthusiasts in their quest for their Spitfire ‘holy grail’, nevertheless crucially enabled their quest to manifest itself.

The ‘desertions crisis’ in the Irish defence forces during the Second World War, 1939–1945

2020 ◽  
pp. 096834452093296
Author(s):  
Joseph Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Air Force ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
British Army ◽  
World War ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Second World

Throughout the course of the Second World War, approximately 7,000 personnel serving with the defence forces of neutral southern Ireland abandoned their posts and absented themselves from duty. A large majority of these absentees successfully evaded capture by their authorities, crossing the border into Northern Ireland and arriving at British combined forces recruiting centres where they enlisted in the British army and the Royal Air Force. At the conclusion of the war, in August 1945, some 5,000 soldiers listed as ‘absent without leave’ were formally dismissed from the defence forces, deprived of all pension and gratuity rights, and legally prevented from obtaining any form of publicly remunerated employment for a 7-year period. This article investigates desertion from the Irish defence forces during the Second World War, producing fresh conclusions as to why it occurred on such a large scale.

scholarly journals "The sort of man": Politics, Clothing and Characteristics in British Propaganda Depictions of Royal Air Force Aviators, 1939-1945

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Liam Barnsdale
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Close Textual Analysis ◽  
Repeated Use ◽  
Multiple Media ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

<p>Throughout the Second World War, the Royal Air Force saw widespread promotion by Britain’s propagandists. RAF personnel, primarily aviators, and their work made frequent appearances across multiple propaganda media, being utilised for a wide range of purposes from recruitment to entertainment. This thesis investigates the depictions of RAF aviators in British propaganda material produced during the Second World War. The chronological changes these depictions underwent throughout the conflict are analysed and compared to broader strategic and propaganda trends. Additionally, it examines the repeated use of clothing and characteristics as identifying symbols in these representations, alongside their appearances in commercial advertisements, cartoons and personal testimony. Material produced or influenced by the Ministry of Information, Air Ministry and other parties within Britain’s propaganda machine across multiple media are examined using close textual analysis. Through this examination, these parties’ influences on RAF aviators’ propaganda depictions are revealed, and these representations are compared to reality as described by real aviators in post-war accounts. While comparing reality to propaganda, the traits unique to, or excessively promoted in, propaganda are identified, and condensed into a specific set of visual symbols and characteristics used repeatedly in propaganda depictions of RAF aviators. Examples of these traits from across multiple media are identified and analysed, revealing their systematic use as aids for audience recognition and appreciation.</p>

scholarly journals The Royal Air Force, Bomber Command and the Use of Benzedrine Sulphate: An Examination of Policy and Practice During the Second World War

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 740-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Pugh
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Drug History ◽  
The Media ◽  
Subjective Evidence ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors ◽  
Second World

This article explores the development of policy in the Royal Air Force (RAF) relating to the use of Benzedrine, a potent amphetamine, by aircrews during the Second World War. This policy evolved from total prohibition in September 1939 to cautious approval for the use of the drug on operations in November 1942. Such caution reflected the subjective evidence available about Benzedrine, the media profile of the substance, and wider social and cultural factors relating to the use of drugs during this period. This challenges our understanding of drug history, demonstrating that while amphetamines were framed as a ‘miracle drug’, more nuanced, functional interpretations of the substance were in evidence. In turn, the article examines evidence from the operational context, including new data gathered from questionnaires and interviews with former Bomber Command aircrew and existing oral history material held by the Imperial War Museum. Both policy discussions and operational evidence allows for a re-evaluation of the arguments of Nicholas Rasmussen, who suggests the RAF made use of Benzedrine as a frontline ‘psychiatric medicine’. Such conclusions downplay the significance the RAF attached to the drug’s effects on wakefulness and concerns about the drug’s effects on wellbeing.

Flight simulation in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War

1988 ◽  
Vol 92 (918) ◽  
pp. 315-327
Author(s):  
J. M. Rolfe ◽  
M. Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Air Force ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Flight Simulation ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
Royal Air Force ◽  
Second World

The approach taken by this examination of flight simulation in the RAF in the Second World War reflects the fact that one author is an engineer and the other a psychologist. As a consequence the paper not only attempts to examine the technology that was established to create the training devices but also something of the personalities who created the simulators and the applications to which they were applied. In the space available it will only be possible to skim the surface of a topic which has been relatively undisturbed for some thirty years. The authors hope is that the paper will stimulate interest and admiration for the dedicated and ingenious innovators who set out to create the devices which enabled the Royal Air Force to learn new skills safely and apply them effectively.

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