Marked for Death (53 page)
Authors: James Hamilton-Paterson
Tags: #History, #Military, #World War I, #Aviation, #Non-Fiction
Royal Air Force
see
RAF
Royal Aircraft Factory (Farnborough)
17–18
,
31–2
criticism of by Grey
23–4
denunciation of by Clark
27–8
denunciation of by Pemberton Billing
25–7
,
28
official enquiry (1916)
27
Royal Flying Corps
see
RFC
Royal Naval Air Service
see
RNAS
Royal Navy
254
Russian aircraft
‘Ilya Muromets’
76–7
safety belts
244–5
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de
153
Salmon, Lieutenant W.G.
271
Salmond, General John
143
Sandy, Lieutenant J.L.
62
Sandys, Duncan
307
Sarrail, General Maurice
287
,
288
Scarff-Dibovski synchroniser
88
Scarff ring
88
Schneider, E.C.
207
Schneider, Franz
83–4
Schüz, Captain Hans
298
,
299–300
,
301
Scott-Paine, Hubert
25
seaplanes
262–5
Second World War
1
,
248
,
259
,
285
,
305
aerial warfare
6–7
and strategic bombing
278–9
short-coupling
48
Shute, Nevil
40
Sikorsky, Igor
76
Slessor, Lieutenant John
286
slide-slip
147
Smith-Barry, Major Robert
142–6
,
147–8
,
236
Smuts, Lieutenant-General Jan Christiaan
273
Snoopy
3
Somme, Battle of the (1916)
103–4
,
154
,
180–1
Sopwith Aviation Co.
23
,
29
,
31
,
38
,
48
Sopwith-Kauper gear
88
Spandau machine gun
86
Spanish Army
72
Special Medical Air Boards
216
,
218
Spilsbury, Bernard
33–4
Springs, Elliott
165
Squadrons
(5)
142
(16)
21–2
(17)
288
(23)
129–30
(24)
87
(26)
284
(30)
298
(37) (Home Defence)
115
(47)
288
(66)
269
(100) Night Bombing
277
(825)
113
flying to France (1914)
74
No.1 Reserve
143–4
No.35 Training
266–7
stalling
55
Stark, Rudolf
152
,
170–1
,
174–5
,
175
Sterling Spark transmitter
263
Stevens, A. Leo
234
Strange, Louis
30
,
39–41
,
51
,
75
,
77
,
80–2
,
129–30
,
148–9
,
165–6
,
171
submarines
253–4
Royal Navy
255
Sunbeam
266
Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd
25
Sykes-Picot agreement
281–2
,
286
synchronised machine gun
21
,
28
,
29
,
84–6
,
88–90
Taff Vale Judgement
14
Taylor, Charlie
56
Tethered Goat tactic
255
Thasos
290
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines
(film)
7
Thurston, Dr A.P.
229
Townshend, Major-General Charles
298
toxic jaundice
34
tractor biplanes
19
,
61
,
78
,
83
,
231
,
319
training (of aircrew)
123–49
accidents and casualty rate during
29–30
,
123
,
133
,
139–40
,
141
,
148–9
,
216
adoption of Smith-Barry’s system by RFC
146
average hours’ flying before posting
136
and character of individual instructors
127
,
129
choosing of instructors
136–7
deficiencies of RFC
142–3
establishment of Central Flying School (1912)
17
,
123–4
flying clubs/schools
124–5
Grider’s account
137–40
instrument flying
224
lack of for British pilots
133–4
lack of engine knowledge by British pilots
130–1
,
134
new system adopted by RFC
141–2
,
146–7
Smith-Barry’s methods at Gosport and recommendations for improving
142–6
,
147–8
Training Wing, 23rd
148–9
Trenchard, Hugh
20
,
23
,
79
,
117
,
125
,
133–4
,
178
,
180
,
188
,
202
,
236
,
253
,
269
,
276
,
304
Trieste
293
Tudor-Hart, W.O.
191
Turkish Army XVIII Corps
298–9
TWA Mk.1 transceiver
98
typhus
292
United States
274
see also
American aircraft; American pilots
Vallot, Joseph
206
Venizelos, Eleftherios
288
Verdun, Battle of
104
Voisin bombers
48
Volkmann, Dr. J
77
War Office
17
,
18
,
28
,
34–5
,
234
,
250
,
266
Warneford, Flight-Sublieutenant Reginald
258–9
weaponry, aircraft
bullets used
91–3
deployment of own machine gun by pilot
79–83
development of synchronised machine gun
21
,
28
,
29
,
84–6
,
88–90
fléchettes
77
improvised
75
jamming of guns
89–90
machine guns
77–85
Webb, Capt. G.W.
191
Wells, H.G.
Westerman, Percy F.
171–2
Wilhelm II, Kaiser
257–8
Wilson, Rear-Admiral Arthur
254
wireless communication
97–9
,
272–3
Wolf
, SMS
264–5
Wölfchen
264–5
women
working in munitions factories
34
,
91
women’s suffrage movement
15–16
Woodman, Harry
84–5
Wortley, Stuart
102
,
134
,
146
,
154–5
,
175–6
,
265–6
Wyllie, Lieutenant-Colonel H.
213
‘Young Aviator, The’ (song)
161
Ypres, Battle of (1914)
249
Zeppelins/Zeppelin raids
72
,
208
,
256
,
257
,
258
,
259
,
260
,
265
Zunz, Nathan
206
Marked for Death
An unforgettable book about the reality of air warfare by the bestselling author of Empire of the Clouds.
Little more than 10 years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war’s massive overall death toll, some 50,000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations’ fledgling air forces.
The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, propaganda focusing on gallant air ‘aces’ who become national heroes. The reality was horribly different. Marked For Death debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy aircraft and unprotected pilots who had no parachutes; of burning 19-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots freezing and disorientated as they flew across enemy lines at 15,000 feet.
James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves and in military attitudes and strategy. By 1918 it was widely accepted that domination of the air above the battlefield was crucial to military success, a realization that would change the nature of warfare for ever.
‘I love his elegant and intensely evocative style: strangeness lifts off his pages like a rare perfume’
J.G. Ballard
J
AMES
H
AMILTON
-P
ATERSON
is the author of the bestselling
Empire of the Clouds
, a classic account of the golden age of British aviation. He won a Whitbread Prize for his first novel,
Gerontius
. He lives in Austria.
N
ON
-
FICTION
A Very Personal War: The Story of Cornelius Hawkridge (also published as
The Greedy War
)
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