'Victory on the Western Front'

[MikeMeech]

Hi

 

I have recently received a copy of 'Victory on the Western Front' by (Dr) Michael Senior, Pen & Sword, 2016.  I have only had a quick look through but was immediately disappointed as on page 66, he is another recent author that uses Dennis Winter's 'incorrect figures' for training and KIA deaths for the RFC during WW1.  Senior states, quoting Winter, that:

 

"According to one historian more pilots were killed during their training period (8,000) than in combat with the enemy (6,166)."

 

These are not just statistics they are people, we have their names, around 9,350 dead in total, that is all ranks, all causes, men and women of Britain and the Commonwealth Air Services, 3,592 KIA in all theatres, 2,870 Killed accidently while flying, about 1,600 or so killed during training (my figure after looking at the names), not just training in the UK but also training establishments overseas, eg Canada, Egypt etc.

 

I 'look forward' to reading the whole book to see if the research is better in other chapters.

 

Mike

[Steven Broomfield]

7 minutes ago, MikeMeech said:

 

 

I 'look forward' to reading the whole book to see if the research is better in other chapters.

 

Mike

 

Good luck. Not an encouraging start, but - yet again - dodgy history is repeated as fact.