The Project Gutenberg EBook of The War in the Air; Vol. 1, by Walter Raleigh

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Title: The War in the Air; Vol. 1
The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force

Author: Walter Raleigh

Release Date: March 1, 2009 [EBook #28226]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR

BASED ON OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

BY DIRECTION OF THE HISTORICAL SECTION OF
THE COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE

THE WAR IN THE AIR

Being the Story of
The part played in the Great War
by the Royal Air Force

VOL. I

BY

WALTER RALEIGH

OXFORD
THE CLARENDON PRESS
1922

Oxford University Press

_London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen
New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town
Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai_

Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY

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. N