Fighting in the Air, April 1918

Published in April 1918, the month that the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force, this little official booklet issued by the General Staff is a general introduction for pilots of the aims of aerial combat. With sections on such topics as the necessity of offensive action; attacking ground targets with bombs and machine-guns; the importance of surprise and manouevre; the evolution of formation flying; and aerial weapons this gives a clear view of how aerial fighting had evolved in the course of the Great War at the very hour of the RAF’s birth.