THE British have always tended to admire understated bravery, the kind brushed off by the heroes who survive as "It was nothing, old chap – got a light?" And in spite of the infantry carnage and courage of the First World War, the pioneers of air war
fare in their unreliable, toy-like planes would be high on anyone's bravery list.
But as Ian Gardiner points out in this gripping book, we know a lot about fighter 'aces' such as Ball and McCudden in the Army's Royal Flying Corps, but much less is known about the pioneers of the Royal Naval Air Service.
What of those who flew on the first carrier air strike in 1914 and later raids against the perceived threat of Zeppelin airships bombing British cities? Men such as Charles Samson, Charles Collet, Eugene Gerrard, Reggie Marix, Sidney Sippe, Spenser Grey, John Babbington, Edward Briggs. On every operation they were pushing the boundaries of flight: "And every bombing raid in history since, from land or sea, and every aircraft carrier, can trace its pedigree to their endeavours."
What endeavours they were even though the threat, fuelled by media and public hysteria dating from the 1908 HG Wells book The War In The Air, was exaggerated. During a war that killed millions on battlefields, Zeppelin air raids killed 567 British citizens.
But raw pilots in 1914 trying to bomb Zeppelin hangars at 90mph in fragile planes with bicycle wheels and dodgy rotary engines that sent a steady spray of fuel and castor oil mix – pilots claimed it was good for their bowels – into the open cockpit, without radio contact, parachute or navigational aids and liable to freeze, did not know the threat was exaggerated.
Gardiner, a retired Royal Marine brigadier with extensive battle experience, notes "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy", and acknowledges that for all the bravery of the pilots, the early bombing raids failed.
But they were heroic failures and then, as now, he writes, in spite of computers, smart missiles, stealth bombers, precision guided weapons and sophisticated surveillance technology, "morale, courage, endurance and human ingenuity remain everything". Those early pilots had those qualities in abundance.
