LEADER 00000pam  2200361 i 4500 
003    DLC 
005    20180428085546.0 
008    180305r20182018nyua     b    001 0 eng   
010      2018009312 
020    9780393652291 (hardcover) 
040    DLC|beng|erda|cDLC|dNjBwBT|dIMmBT|dUtOrBLW 
042    pcc 
043    e-uk---|ae------ 
082 00 940.4/4941|223 
092    940.44941|bOVE 
100 1  Overy, Richard,|eauthor. 
240 10 Birth of the RAF, 1918 
245 10 RAF :|bthe birth of the world's first air force /|cRichard
       Overy. 
246 3  Royal Air Force, the birth of the world's first air force 
250    First American edition. 
264  1 New York :|bW.W. Norton & Company,|c2018. 
300    x, 149 pages :|billustrations ;|c22 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
500    Originally published: The birth of the RAF, 1918 : the 
       world's first air force. London : Penguin Books, 2018. 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages 115-139) and 
       index. 
505 00 |tBritain and the war in the air --|tBattles in the sky, 
       Battles in Whitehall --|tApril Fools' Day 1918 --|t"A very
       grueling business": saving the RAF. 
520    "The birth of the Royal Air Force during World War I 
       marked a pivotal moment in modern military and political 
       history. With Europe's western front frozen in a bloody 
       stalemate of trench warfare, both sides sought some means 
       of directly attacking enemy resources and morale. The new 
       technologies of air power were used at first for 
       reconnaissance of enemy positions for artillery strikes. 
       By 1917 German bombers had begun raids on British cities, 
       including an attack on London that killed hundreds, with 
       eighteen schoolchildren among the casualties. Public 
       outrage in Britain sparked a call for air defense and 
       spurred political support for an independent air ministry.
       Prime Minister David Lloyd George and his minister of 
       munitions, Winston Churchill, led the debates over how to 
       shape Britain's air power during the war. The immediate 
       path to an independent RAF is a fascinating story of 
       political, bureaucratic, and personal rivalries. By the 
       end of World War I, the RAF was launching effective 
       bombing campaigns on industrial and military targets in 
       western Germany. It survived postwar retrenchment thanks 
       largely to Churchill, who as colonial secretary gave the 
       RAF special responsibility for enforcing imperial control 
       in the Middle East, especially in the new League of 
       Nations mandates of Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq. The 
       RAF helped to shape the way air power developed not just 
       in Britain but notably in Germany and the United States. 
       The massive bombing campaigns of World War II against 
       civilian and industrial targets in major cities are rooted
       in this history. This compact book shows a master 
       historian at work. In command of the archival sources, at 
       home in all dimensions of the story, Richard Overy crafts 
       an engrossing narrative of this turning point in our 
       history."--Provided by publisher. 
610 10 Great Britain.|bRoyal Air Force|xHistory|y20th century. 
650  0 World War, 1914-1918|xAerial operations, British.