In its relatively short life, the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) saw the birth of naval aviation and the most extraordinarily rapid increase in the operational capability of this new military arm, before it was absorbed into the newly-formed Royal Air Force in April 1918. This book provides an insight into many of the elements that contributed to this capability; an insight drawn from the diaries, journals, letters and reports of the very people who made it happen. We hear about the decision of the Admiralty in March 1911 to form a nucleus of trained pilots and how from these small beginnings, naval aviation expanded enormously, both in the numbers of trained airmen and in the quantity (and variety) of naval aircraft. Some of the articles in the book have been published previously in Jabberwock, the Journal of the Society of Friends of the Fleet Air Arm Museum (SOFFAAM) of which I have been the Editor for several years. As far as I can establish, very few have been published elsewhere. All the material is drawn from the extensive archives of the Museum, which provides a treasure trove of fascinating and irreplaceable documentation.
For reasons of balance, I have had to abridge some of the longer documents. I have also corrected obvious anomalies and standardised some spellings of place names. These editorial interventions apart, I have taken care to preserve the authentic voices of the contributors, who speak to us from a century ago. The authors are a varied crowd, almost all of them very young and from differing backgrounds. Voices of young public-school-educated officers are heard alongside those of the lower deck, with dramatic descriptions of airborne combat and peril, but also including many caustic comments on discipline, living conditions and food. Some of the original material is in the form of diaries, and I was impressed by the impeccable copperplate handwriting in several of these.
The articles are placed in a broadly chronological context but the book has no pretensions to providing a complete historical record. The early days of flying training are well described by those who took to the air in remarkably unstable and flimsy machines. Alongside the well-known exploits of the RNAS in support of the Royal Flying Corps in France, the book provides lengthy eye-witness accounts of naval aviation involvement in the ill-fated operations against the Turks at Gallipoli. It was for this campaign that the RN developed a significant capability in the operational deployment, maintenance and support of its air arm, far from home. The important contribution made by dirigible airships to anti-submarine warfare is well described, although the sheer monotony of these patrols comes across very clearly. We also see the preliminary steps towards the launch of wheeled fighters from ships that culminated, just too late to be involved in hostilities, in the first true aircraft-carrier, HMS Argus.
Two interesting anecdotes stand alone: one a rather highly-coloured description of spy-catching that reflects the contemporary belief that there were swarms of German spies on the mainland of England; the other an altogether more sober account by an RNAS pilot captured by the Turks.
The book finishes on a completely different note. The Royal Naval Armoured Car Division was part of the RNAS and, after somewhat losing its raison d’être in the static conditions on the Western Front, elements of it were deployed in Gallipoli and in Russia. Although fighting in very different conditions from their airborne brothers in the RNAS, the men of the armoured cars were naval officers and ratings, complying with naval disciplines and procedures. Their participation in fighting in various campaigns is perhaps not as well known as others described in this book, but their bravery deserves to be recognised.
Researching into the RNAS has opened for me a window into a different era. The participants were all born in the nineteenth century and the tone of their diaries and reminiscences is resolutely Edwardian. They are boyish, reckless, occasionally xenophobic, often sentimental; yet always recognisable as the founders of naval aviation. If by some miracle of time travel, they could see modern aircraft rising from warships, they would probably be astonished at the technology. However, they would have no difficulty in recognising the high morale, dedication and proficiency of their descendants, the people of the modern Fleet Air Arm.