Many of the technical and political events called up in this book have been well recorded in previously published works. However, where Peter Reese's book scores heavily is the new light he throws on the influential key players of the period. Conflict and policy making have long been close bedfellows and never more so than in the fight for the RAF's survival and the early airlines' struggle for government support in the post-WW1 years. Consider the battle continuously fought by the then Chief of the Air Staff Lord Trenchard to secure the service's future, only to put his policy of bomber production first and that of modern fighters second, almost causing a national disaster in 1940. Trenchard's views, aided and abetted by his successor as Chief of the Air Staff Sir Edward Ellington were strongly opposed by the far-sighted Air Minister Lord Swinton and service colleagues such as Lord Dowding and, especially, Sir Wilfrid Freeman. The author does not fail to give due credit to the industry leaders Mitchell, Camm, de Havilland and Handley Page et al who succeeded in difficult and stringent times to provide private venture aircraft capable of sustained development throughout the war.
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