The Royal Air Force

John Buckley is Professor of Military History at the University of Wolverhampton, where he has taught and researched since 1992. He is the author and editor of a range of books on aspects of twentieth-century military history, air power, and conflict studies, including The RAF and Trade Defence, 1919-1945 (1995) Air Power in the Age of Total War (1999) and Monty's Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe 1944-5 (2013) which won the 2014 Templer Medal (awarded annually to the author of the book deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the history of the British Army). Paul Beaver worked for five years on Jane's Defence Weekly, including spells as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, and has operated as a freelance war correspondent for Sky News in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone. He has written over 50 books on military history, including most recently Spitfire People (2015). He spent 27 years in Army Air Corps Reserves, is a qualified pilot, and is now Honorary Group Captain of No 601 (County of London) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force.

• Introduction: One Hundred Years of the Royal Air Force 1: Formation 2: Imperial Policing in the Interwar Era 3: The Road to War: 1932-1939 4: The RAF in the Second World War: The Defensive 1939-1942 5: The Bomber Offensive: 1939-1945 6: The RAF in the Second World War: The Offensive 1942-1945 7: The RAF Enters the Nuclear Age 8: Cold War in Europe: 1945-1989 9: The Wider World: 1945-1992 10: The RAF in Small Wars 11: War in the Gulf and Other Not So Small Wars 12: Future Proofing the RAF Notes Index

This book is superbly written and expertly researched. It will soon become the first port of call for anyone seeking an authoritative account of the Royal Air Force in its first hundred years. Its arguments are persuasive and it is clearly evident that the authors are intimately aware of the areas of historical debate.