The Boy Airman by Petty Richard;

Author:Petty, Richard;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
ISBN: 4392552
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2015-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

Scuttling of German battleship SMS Bayern at Scapa Flow, 21st June, 1919.

12

The nation must be taught to bear losses. No amount of skill on the part of the higher commanders, no training, however good, on the part of the officers and men, no superiority of arms and ammunition, however great, will enable victories to be won without the sacrifice of men’s lives. The nation must be prepared to see heavy casualty lists.

– Field Marshal Douglas Haig, July 1916

Figures are difficult to come by, but it is estimated that Britain lost 35,970 aircraft in the Great War – only around 4,000 in combat. 16,620 aircrew were killed, wounded or missing.

Evidently accidents were commonplace, killing many more pilots than bullets.

The French invention of the seaplane in 1910 had generated an investigatory ‘Air Department’ in the Admiralty.

The Royal Naval Air Service became independent of the Royal Flying Corps on 1st August, 1915: it had a staff of 720, flying 93 assorted aeroplanes and six airships.

In 1910 the exclusive and wealthy Royal Aero Club had donated two aeroplanes to the Royal Navy, along with the services of its members as instructors and the use of its aerodrome at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. It was stipulated that the trainee pilots were to be unmarried, and were able to pay the membership fees of the Club.

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