Название: The Battle for Britain: Interservice Rivalry between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, 1909-1940 Автор: Anthony J. Cumming
Издательство: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612518346
Год: 2015
Страниц: 240
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), djvu
Размер: 10.17 MB
The Battle for Britain is a provocative reinterpretation of both British air and naval power from 1909 to 1940. Anthony Cumming challenges the view that the Battle of Britain was a decisive victory won solely by the Royal Air Force through independent airpower operations. By re-evaluating the early stage of the Mediterranean conflict and giving special emphasis to naval battles such as Calabria and Taranto, Cumming argues that the Royal Navy played an equally important role in defeating Hitler's early advances, buying critical time until the Americans could make a decisive contribution. His argument holds that the RAF's role as an independent arm has been exaggerated and that contemporary strategists can learn from investing too much confidence in independent airpower.
Airplanes, compared with ships or armies, are relative newcomers to the battlefield. As with all new weapon systems, they were viewed with suspicion and some antagonism by the senior military officers of the day. Luckily, thanks to the pioneers of the Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) and Royal Flying Corps (RFC) their virtues became more readily accepted, but even towards the end of the First World War there was still sufficient resistance to encourage those pioneers that only the formation of a separate service devoted to the delivery of war from the air would enable the aircraft’s proper place in our national armory to be sustained and fully recognized. However, the creation of a separate service did not much change the way in which aircraft were used in support of the sea and land battles.
Скачать The Battle for Britain: Interservice Rivalry between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, 1909-1940