Description

This volume describes the part played by increasing numbers of Australians in the first four years of the air war in Europe and the Middle East. In 1939 there was one Australian squadron in England and there were some 400 Australians in the RAF. At the end of 1943 there were about 15,000 Australian airmen serving in the war against Germany and Italy, a proportion of them being in eighteen Australian squadrons. Since the Australians were so widely dispersed – almost every RAF squadron contained some – the author has outlined the story of the air war as a whole, assessing its achievements and examining the commanders’ policies in the light of German and Italian as well as British documents. At the same time he has illustrated the general narrative with accounts of the experiences of individual Australian crews.

The integration of Dominion contingents within a vast Commonwealth air force produced a variety of problems, political, administrative and psychological. The frank and authoritative exposition of these problems from the point of view of one of the smaller partners in the Empire air force makes this volume, in part, an important contribution to the history of British Commonwealth relations.