Policing the Empire

摘要

What is often thought of as the archetypal peacetime naval fighter found itself in some distinctly hostile situations in the 1920s and 1930s. The Fairey Flycatcher was the main Royal Navy fighter from 1925 to 1932, and at the time of its introduction represented a huge step forward for the Fleet Air Arm, which had for the first time a fighter designed from the wheels up for operation from aircraft carriers. The first test of the Flycatcher came while serving on the China Station in 1925-27. After the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, China entered the so-called 'warlord era'. The increasingly volatile situation threatened British interests including civilian shipping and the protectorate of Hong Kong. Anti-British feeling steadily increased over this period and led to a long-running boycott and strike, together with the theft of British cargo lighters in Hong Kong harbour by Communist sympathisers.