Read Wings Online
Authors: Patrick Bishop
7. James McCudden VC. The former boy-burglar who became one of the great air warriors of the First World War.
8. Members of 85 Squadron with pets and mascots at St Omer towards the end of the First World War. Unlike pictures of soldiers of the period, the animals seemnatural and relaxed.
9. The iconic British aeroplane of the First World War. A Sopwith Camel of 9 Naval Squadron, one of the RNAS units that served on the Western Front. The pilotis Flight Sub Lieutenant E. Pierce and the face on the rudder is music hall star George Robey.
10. Edwin Dunning’s Sopwith Pup touches down on HMSFuriousin a pioneering feat of naval aviation. Shortly afterwards, hewas dead.
11. Aerial policing. RAF air power intimidated restless natives in the inter-war years. This is Iraq and the aircraft are Westland Wapitis.
12. Between the wars the Hendon Air Pageants enthralled thousands, including many boys who would take to the skies themselves.
13. Mick Mannock combined a cool ruthlessness with a complex and beguiling intelligence.
14. The essence of Fighter Boy skill and insouciance. Brian Kingcome.
15. Roland Beaumont fought from the Battle of Britain to D-Day and beyond, before going to a post-war career as a test pilot.
16. Keith Park and his personal Hurricane. If any two men can be said to have won the Battle of Britain, it was he and his boss, Hugh Dowding.
17. Brilliant, driven, and ultimately fragile. Guy Gibson, VC.
18. Squadron Leader Peter Hill briefs crews of 51 Squadron before the Nuremberg raid. Neither he, nor many of those in the picture, would return.
19. They also serve – WAAF mechanics. For many of the 250,000 women who passed through the wartime RAF, the experience was a liberation, an adventure,and an epiphany.