British Aviation, 1912 ~ 2024
Eyes to the Skies looks across the span of 111 years, from the formation of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 as the Air Branch of the British Army, to its incredible development and history at the cutting edge of aerial combat, culminating in the formation of the world’s first independent air force ~ our Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918.
It is best if you read RFC Paper 1 An Introduction to the Royal Flying Corps. The paper can be read here, or one can proceed to the drop-down menu and select Articles.
By kind permission of my family, the banner portrait is of our father’s elder brother Sergeant-Pilot Kenneth Ernest Webb RAFVR 1315766 (1921-1943) in March 1941 at Craig Field Alabama undergoing pilot training. The biplane is the redoubtable Boeing Spearman Kaydet, a beautiful trainer. I grew up with this framed portrait in the front room at my Grandparents’ home. It remained in the original frame until last year and is now reframed and displayed in the family gallery at my home.
The portrait’s motto says it all and despite the horror of war: Life is Good!
Kenneth Thomas Webb
October 2024
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The Free World Paused, an Island Resisted
Battle of Britain July~October 1940
On 1 September 1939, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. Great Britain and France each delivered an ultimatum to Berlin that if Germany did not immediately withdraw their troops from Poland, then a state of war would exist between them. It was ignored.
On 3 September 1939 a sombre, almost broken voiced, Neville Chamberlain and who would die of cancer in November 1940, announced to the British People and to the British Commonwealth and Empire, and to the World, that no such undertaking has been received and that consequently, this Country is at war with Germany.
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Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force was the World’s first Air Force founded on 1 April 1918. Its Motto, inherited from the Royal Flyiing Corps (1912-1918) remains Per Ardua Ad Astra ~ We Struggle to the Stars. An incredible record 105 years on.
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Browse Book Reviews ❯
The purpose of this Section is obvious, and the choice of book cover to showcase it, is also deliberate. A masterly account by the late Colonel Richard ‘Eager’ Ernest Evans, and taken up by his daughter Barbara Evans Kinnear. As a young captain, he also happened to be the pilot of General (later Field Marshal) Montgomery’s personal B17-Flying Fortress during the 1942 Desert Campaign in North West Africa, which gives more than a hint of the directness of this most important Military Record.
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![Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/ko/@raymondo600?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Ray Harrington</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/Douglas-Dakota-DC3?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_con]()
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Royal Flying Corps
Thisis about the History of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal naval Air Service 1912-1918
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I am passionate about aeroplanes and the History of Aviation. This stems from three uncles serving in the Royal Air Force and which led to my own volunteer reserve service (1974-1991)
The title Eyes to the Skies many will recognise. As a teenager at a Royal Air Force Station in South West England, I well recall the instructor’s voice in 1969 on the wind on an airfield, that bracing wind keen on my face, in words that went something like this …
Right, everyone. Pay attention.
Webb! Tell me, please, the Make and Mark of the approaching aircraft.
Altitude, Speed, Heading.
I want to know what you think the pilot will do in the next thirty seconds. Will he land, or will he abort? If he aborts, why so? And in that case which circuit he’ll do?
Webb … I’m waiting ….
Yes, Flight Sergeant! It’s a … … …
I leave, of course, the rest to your imagination. I loved those days and 55 years on, when I’m pegging the washing out, I still run through that routine when any aeroplane flies overhead, often to Staverton; or much higher up, with the twinge of fear, I know that the four-engine heavies I can hear, and sometimes even see, are on a heading for Poland and the War in Ukraine … read more
