With the Flying Squadron: Letters of a Pilot of the Royal Naval Air Service During the First World War

A war in the skies above the waves

As early as 1908 the Royal Navy understood the potential for the use of aircraft in naval warfare. By 1914 the Royal Naval Air Service consisted of 93 aircraft, 6 airships, 2 balloons and 727 personnel. By 1918 when the RNAS was combined with the RAF it had nearly 3,000 aircraft and more than 55,000 personnel. Aircraft working in concert with the Royal Navy and against enemy shipping and coastal installations had come to stay. This interesting book looks at the RNAS from a much more personal perspective-that of one young navy pilot, Harold Rosher. The book tells the story of Rosher's war, based around Dover and engaged in patrolling over and across the English Channel and attacking enemy held coastal defences such as Zeebrugge, principally through letters to his family and provides vital insights into the First World War in the air as experienced by an early naval pilot. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.