Reckless Fellows

The Gentlemen of the Royal Flying Corps

Edward Bujak

$90

Hardback

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English

I.B. Tauris
30 September 2015

History; British & Irish history; First World War; Air forces & warfare; Regiments

The Royal Flying Corps, later the Royal Air Force, was formed in 1912 and went to war in 1914 where it played a vital role in reconnaissance, supporting the British Expeditionary Force as 'air cavalry' and also in combat, establishing air superiority over the Imperial German Air Force.

Edward Bujak here combines the history of the air war, including details of strategy, tactics, technical issues and combat, with a social and cultural history. The RFC was originally dominated by the landed elite, in Lloyd George's phrase 'from the stateliest houses in England', and its pilots were regarded as 'knights of the air'. Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire, seat of landed gentry, became their major training base. Bujak shows how, within the circle of the RFC, the class divide and unconscious superiority of Edwardian Britain disappeared - absorbed by common purpose, technical expertise and by an influx of pilots from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He thus provides an original and unusual take on the air war in World War I, combining military, social and cultural history.

By: Edward Bujak
Imprint: I.B. Tauris
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 1
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 386g
ISBN: 9781784534424
ISBN 10: 1784534420
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 30 September 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction 1. Poor Bloody Observers and Aerial Reconnaissance 2. Reckless Fellows and Aerial Superiority 3. Young Icarus and Flight Training 4. Gosport and the Flight Instructor 5. Airmen and their American Mechanics 6. An Australian Odyssey from Egypt to England 7. The Aerodrome and the Armistice Conclusion

Edward Bujak is Associate Professor of History at Harlaxton College, the British campus of the University of Evansville, Indiana. He is the author of England's Rural Realms: Landholding and the Agricultural Revolution (I.B.Tauris).

Reviews for Reckless Fellows: The Gentlemen of the Royal Flying Corps

'Reckless Fellows makes a welcome contribution to the growing interest in pilot studies that is both scholarly and readable. Edward Bujak's insights into changes in the training programme and the social make up of the Royal Flying Corps skillfully connects local and social history, with the wider experience of airmen in World War I.' - Maryam Philpott, author of Air and Sea Power in World War I