ROYAL AIR FORCE
A Chinook Mk3 helicopter takes to the skies over its home station at RAF Odiham, Hampshire
ROYAL AIR FORCE Her Majesty’s
From the seeds of a great invention over a hundred years ago has blossomed the airborne pride of the nation, the Royal Air Force. Since its earliest deployment as a new and innovative fighting force during World War I, through heroic actions in World War II, the RAF has since continued to meet many challenges at home and abroad in the quest for stability and reconciliation, a Force for Good. BY CHARLES FORD
at those daring young men in their pre- carious flying machines at the turn of the last century. With the advent of World War I in
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1914, the real value of these low-powered but hugely innovative machines soon became apparent, together with the in- trepid young pilots who flew them. Here for the first time was a new asset able to provide superior reconnaissance and sur- veillance of enemy activity from the air, an invaluable new method of surveying the terrain and troop movements, sub- sequently, war was waged from the air to the ground , further developing into air-to-air combat with enemy aircraft. Thus, the first airborne fighting force was
ooking back from our technologi- cal age, through historic film clips and sepia photographs, we marvel
created, then known as the Royal Flying Corps (RFC).
Irrepressible spirit With the serious intent that goes with all wartime activity, there was also an in- domitable spirit and a dashing bravado that these pilots carried with them dur- ing these earliest aerial combats. Perhaps most notable among them was the Ca- nadian air ace ‘Billy’ Bishop VC, who fa- mously fought in combat sorties over the Western Front, at the same time as Man- fred von Richthofen, ‘The Red Baron’. Since those earliest times, it may truth-
fully be said that this same irrepressible spirit has been handed down through the generations, the spirit of the men and women of the RFC and RAF enduring to- day amongst a sophisticated and techno-
logically advanced, agile, adaptable and capable force. As the huge significance of combat air-
craft was recognized during WWI, the RFC was reformed as a distinct fighting force – the Royal Air Force. However, during the twenty year period of peace for Britain, there followed a significant downsizing of the RAF, but his was all to change during the most significant periods of techno- logical development the world have ever seen, namely the commencement of Brit- ain’s entry into World War II.
Battle of Britain Of all the remarkable stories of heroism and spirited resistance in the air, none is more famous than the Battle of Brit- ain which took place in the summer of 1940. Remembering too, that our Royal
36 SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
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