|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Royal Air Force
|
|
The first British air force was the RFC (Royal Flying Corps), founded on 13 May 1912 as a joint army and navy enterprise. During World War I the naval side split off to become the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service, later the *Fleet Air Arm), and in the last months of the war the two were absorbed in the new Royal Air Force, established on 1 April 1918. In the first year of World War II the RAF demonstrated, in the *Battle of Britain, that it had now taken over a role which the navy had held for a millennium, that of being the country's main defence against invasion.
|
|
|
|