Marked for Death (47 page)

There are several scholarly histories of the Royal Flying Corps and the first war in the air, all of which treat the subject chronologically. I have chosen a less exhaustive approach by means of chapters dealing with aspects that particularly interest me – such as the medical issues of flying, how aircrew were chosen and behaved, and the relationship between the design of early aircraft and the tasks the military increasingly demanded of them. I hope by this means to give a vivid overall sense of the air war, together with its consequences for the aviation age that followed it.

In each of the chapters I have tried to preserve a rough sort of chronology. However, from time to time readers may find it helpful to refer to the Chronology on p.311 that puts some of the aviation milestones into a timeline of events on the wider battlefield in Europe and beyond.

This book does not pretend to be any sort of comprehensive survey of the hundreds of different aircraft types the various combatants flew during the war. This has already been admirably done in the specialist literature.

To this book’s dedicatee Chris Royle I owe not merely friendship but many a flight from White Waltham airfield in his shared Piper Cherokee, an invitation to speak to the club there, and the subsequent opportunity to pick the brains of his many friends, some of whom learned to fly ‘hands-on’ back in the days when the nearest thing to a modern electronic flight simulator was a Link Trainer. Their combined wealth of experience has been of the greatest value in helping me grasp the finer points of aerodynamics. This is true also of my Canadian ex-test pilot friend Richard Bentham and my retired US Navy pilot correspondent Edward Roberts.

I am most grateful to Stephen Slater for the opportunity to examine his beautiful flying B.E.2c replica at Sywell and for permission to use his picture of it, and to Matthew Boddington for spending so much time graciously answering my questions about the aircraft. To Tony Purton I owe my introduction to the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, as well as to FAST Museum’s David Wilson who gave us an enthralling day, including flying the simulator attached to their magnificent replica of Sam Cody’s British Army Aeroplane No. 1: a challenging experience I would recommend to anyone, and particularly to pilots accustomed to biddable modern aircraft. I should also like to thank sundry informants at the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden airfield as well as at the RAF Museum, Hendon and the IWM Museum at Duxford.

In addition, warm thanks are due the following for the various kinds of help and advice they have so generously given me: John Farley, Pat Malone, Ian Marshall, Lindsay Peacock, Brian Rivas, Chris Roberts, Richard Robson, Russell Savory.

My long-time friend and editor Neil Belton, my even longer-time friend and agent Andrew Hewson and his colleague Edward Wilson all merit deep gratitude for their constant support over the years.

My sister Jane Stephens and my brother-in-law Michael have been endlessly generous with their hospitality, and I am particularly grateful to Jane for her sane and knowledgeable company on visits to Brooklands Museum and for her introduction to me of Chris Roberts, an expert on the development of airborne wireless at the Brooklands Experimental Establishment during WWI.

Tribute is once more due to the Royal Air Force Historical Society and its Chairman, Air Vice-Marshal Nigel Baldwin. The Society’s
Journal
is not only required reading for anyone interested in British military aviation in all its aspects but constitutes an ever-expanding scholarly source.

Yet again I would like to thank Brian Riddle, the Librarian of the National Aerospace Library, Farnborough, for his help. His encyclopaedic knowledge and painstaking assistance have been invaluable to me, just as they benefit all who use this magnificent resource.

The Bibliography shows the works to which I am indebted. Special mention should be made of two particular books on which I have leaned heavily: Ellis and Williams’ biography of W. E. Johns and Neil Hanson’s beautifully researched
First Blitz
. This is by far the best book I know about German air raids on Britain in the First World War and should be the starting point for anyone wishing to investigate the subject. I would also like to acknowledge various dedicated online forums, in particular The Aerodrome (
www.theaerodrome.com
), Cross and Cockade International (
www.crossandcockade.com
) and the Great War in The Air Forum (
www.greatwaraviation.com
). The late Dan-San Abbott’s scholarly contributions, especially to The Aerodrome, are deeply missed.

Lastly, the writing of this book – as well as that of its two predecessors – has been indelibly marked by the constant help and friendship offered me in Austria by Carmen Bausek, Helene Belndorfer and Fritz Koller, Christian and Beatrix Horicky, Fritz Kroath, Walter and Waltraud Schobermayr, and Elke and Robert Schuster. Thanks to their tireless support computer and other practical problems have melted away, as have a great many happy hours (and Euros) in Weissl’s restaurant and Mayr’s café.

In place of the authorial ritual of admitting that even Homer nods I shall simply cite the principle of TUDA: The Usual Disclaimers Apply.

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,
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