Description

Volume 8 of the Air Power and the Arab World 1909–1955 mini-series continues the story of the men and machines involved in the first half century of military aviation in the Arab world. These years opened with the Arab countries and their military forces still caught up in the final years of the Second World War. This was followed by a brief period of soaring hopes and often unrealistic ambitions.

This volume examines the development and growth of the Royal Egyptian Air Force (REAF) and Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIAF) in detail as each continued to try to forge its own identity in the period of 1943 to 1945. The REAF tried to walk the fine line between the official position of Egypt’s neutrality in the Second World War, until near the end of that conflict, while still playing host to significant British forces and only slowly began to accumulate relatively modern and combat-capable aircraft. The RIAF, still somewhat under the shadow of the 1941 war with Britain, found itself in a relative backwater of the war and struggled to rebuild its forces with essentially obsolete types. Volume 8 also offers a brief overview of air power developments elsewhere in the Arab world during this period.

Volume 8 of Air Power and the Arab World is richly illustrated with original photographs from the 1943 to 1945 period in the region, along with specially commissioned colour artworks of the aircraft flown by the Arab air forces.