Probably the most ambitious project of its nature ever attempted, this work provides complete or near complete histories of over 15,000 aircraft flown by the Royal Naval Air Service from 1911 and by successor units of the Royal Air Force from 1 April 1918 until the end of 1919. It also lists their squadrons, units and bases.
During many years of research the authors have examined nearly 3,000 files and ships logs in the Public Record Office, as well as numerous documents and photographs in various other archives including the Fleet Air Arm Museum, the Royal Air Force Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum and the Liddle Collection at Leeds University. The resulting book runs to 480 pages and contains 321 photographs illustrating the majority of aircraft types flown, including prototypes. Sixteen pages of drawings include plans of over 80 U.K. land and marine bases, as well as location maps of aerodromes and place names in France and Belgium. A comprehensive index details around 4,000 individual names referred to in the lists.
The lists cover aircraft operated in such diverse locations as United Kingdom coastal waters, the North Sea, the Western Front, East Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Dardanelles, the Aegean, Mesopotamia, post-war Russia and training stations at home and in France, as well as aboard ships ranging from impressed paddle-steamers up to battleships. There is detailed coverage of successes and losses on the Western Front. All known operational and non-operational casualties are listed, both fatal and otherwise, in most cases with brief information on the incident and the individual aircraft involved.
There are details of numerous attempts by coastal aircraft to bomb U-boats around the coast of Britain, and of land-based naval aircraft making hazardous night flights to help stem the Zeppelin menace. The many individual incidents include Major Barker's dramatic fight in October 1918 when, despite his Sopwith Snipe being riddled with bullets as he came down, he managed to account for four enemy aircraft before making a crash landing from which he and his aircraft survived, for which unique exploit he was awarded a well merited Victoria Cross.
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ISBN 0-85130-191-6
First Published 1992 by
Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd, 12 Lonsdale Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1PA, England.
