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RFC books


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Hello,

 

I wonder if if any fellow pals have recommendations for reading on the early days of the RFC? I am researching our local men who served and would like to understand this period better to place it all in context.

 

Grateful for for any recommendations to add to an already lengthy reading list!

 

Thanks.

 

Matt

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As no one has replied up till now to your request , it may be a good idea to post a request in the 'War in the Air' section , as those experts who post

there may not look at the book section. Two memoirs that may be appropriate are McCudden's ' Five years in the Royal Flying Corps' ( also found

under the title 'Flying Fury' ) and Louis Strange's  'Recollections of an Airman'.

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I'll add "Flying Corps Headquarters" by Maurice Baring to that - I was bought the reprint edition as a present in the 70s. 

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On ‎11‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 18:03, MattB said:

Hello,

 

I wonder if if any fellow pals have recommendations for reading on the early days of the RFC? I am researching our local men who served and would like to understand this period better to place it all in context.

 

Grateful for for any recommendations to add to an already lengthy reading list!

 

Thanks.

 

Matt

Hi

Volume 1 of the Official History, 'War in the Air' by Walter Raleigh, Chapter V, will give you some information on the early days of the RFC.  This should still be available to download free on-line.  Is there anything in particular you are after?

 

Mike

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ralph Barker's A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps in World War 1 , available on Amazon.  I re-read it at about eighteen month intervals, and find it particularly good on the very early days of the RFC.  It doesn't, unfortunately, continue beyond the formation of the RAF in April 1918.

 

Peter Hart's Bloody April is more limited in scope (in that it looks specifically at April 1917) but it is also very good and I return to it regularly. 

 

Among first-hand accounts of the 1915 ish period I have very much enjoyed Duncan Grinnell-Milne's Wind in the Wires

 

Piers

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