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PREFACE
The History of which this is the first
volume is, in the main, the history of the part played in the war by
British air forces. It is based chiefly on the records of the Air
Ministry collected and preserved at the Historical Section. The staff of
the Section have spared no trouble to collect an immense amount of
material and arrange it for use, to consult living witnesses, to verify
facts down to the minutest details, and to correct any errors that may
have crept into the narrative. Their main purpose has been to secure
that any statement of fact made in this book shall be true and
demonstrable. If in any particular instances they have failed in this
purpose, it has not been for lack of pains and care.
Official records do not in themselves make history. They are colourless
and bare. In the business of interpreting and supplementing them we have
been much helped by the kindness of many military and naval officers and
of many civilian experts. Their help, most of which is acknowledged in
the text, has supplied us with the liveliest things in this book. We
could wish that we had more of it. Naval and military officers do not
advertise, and are reluctant to speak publicly of the part that they
played in the war. They are silent on all that may seem to tell to their
own credit or to the discredit of others, and this silence easily
develops into a fixed habit of reticence. We are the more grateful to
those who have helped us to a true account by telling of what they saw.
The best part of the book is yet to come; if the theme is to be worthily
treated, it must be by the help of those who remember and of those who
know.
The writer of this history has endeavoured to make his narrative
intelligible to those who, like himself, are outsiders, and, with that
end in view, he has avoided, as far as possible* the masonic dialect of
the services. For the few and cautious opinions that he has expressed he
alone is responsible. In controverted questions, though he has not
always been careful to conceal his own opinion, he has always tried so
to state the grounds for other opinions that those who hold these other
opinions may think his statement not unfair. If his own opinion is
wrong, the corrective will usually be found near at hand. The position
of an outsider has grave disabilities; if a measure of compensation for
these disabilities is anywhere to be found, it must be sought in freedom
from the heat of partisan zeal and from the narrowness of corporate
loyalty.
Some of the men who early took thought for their country’s need, and
quietly laboured to prepare her against the day of trial, are here
celebrated, and their names, we hope, rescued from neglect. The men who
flew over the fire of enemy guns were so many that comparatively few of
their names, and these chosen almost by accident, can here be mentioned.
There were thousands of others just as good. The heroes of this story,
let it be said once ancf for all, are only samples.
Some apology perhaps is necessary for the variety which has been found
inevitable in naming particular men. A man’s Christian name and surname
are his own, but change and promotion were rapid during the war, so that
the prefixes to these names varied from year to year. Where we are
describing a particular deed, we give the actors the rank that they held
at the time. Where we speak more generally, we give them the rank that
they held when this history was written.
WALTER RALEIGH
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6 |
