The War in the Air (Penguin Classics)

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Canadians embraced their hero airmen during and after the war. Comics, novels, films, plays, and histories were written about the “knights of the sky.” The fighter pilots, especially the aces, were lionized, even as the observers were often ignored. Such

This is not Well's most famous work by a longshot - it's quite likely you've never even heard of it. Wells wrote The War in the Air in 1907 at a time when he was veering away from the scientific romances of his past and into more mainstream fiction. Like his earlier novels The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine this book contains a fair amount of social commentary, but unlike those, this one is couched in some fairly lengthy 'editorial' sections by the unnamed narrator that will come across as rather dry and sometimes preachy. Suffice to say that Wells was alarmed by the increase in nationalist rhetoric he was seeing around him, and this book forms part of his reaction to it.

THE EPILOGUE

He was also concerned with the military capability of the fledgling aeroplane. He saw that 'the Goddess of Change was turning her disturbing attention to the sky. The first great boom in aeronautics was beginning.' The aeroplane is an invention of the Devil, and will never play any part in such a serious business as the defence of the nation,” thundered Canada’s Minister of Militia and Defence, Sam Hughes,

The idea of Japan and China uniting into a single power, the "Confederation of East Asia", prefigures " Eastasia" which is one of the three world powers in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four. The military might and ability attributed to the Sino–Japanese alliance is clearly and manifestly inflated: constructing far more airships and flying machines than all the rest of the world put together; waging simultaneous all-out wars of conquest against the United States, Britain, Germany, and other powers; performing the gigantic logistical task of transporting a million people across the Pacific within a few days while at the same time conducting extensive military operations all over Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.In the early part of the summer of 1916, when the Germans were outnumbered over the Somme battlefields in northern France, they suffered a series of defeats, losing over and chemical agents to annihilate cities and kill civilians by the thousands. As the Second World War revealed, the prophecies came true, at least in terms of bombers

They hung the man from the Adler. They gave him sixty feet of rope, so that he should hang and dangle in the sight of all evil-doers who might be hiding matches or contemplating any kindred disobedience. Bart saw the man standing, a living, reluctant man, no doubt scared and rebellious enough in his heart, but outwardly erect and obedient, on the lower gallery of the Adler about a hundred yards away. Then they thrust him overboard... As the war in the air escalated, dog fights between aircraft became a frequent sight in the skies above the lines. The stakes were high, as Thomas Isbell of 41 Squadron discovered. that with the flying machine war alters in its character; it ceases to be an affair of 'fronts' and becomes an affair of 'areas'; neither side, victor or loser, remains immune from the gravest injuries, and while there is a vast increase in the destructiveness of war, there is also an increased indecisiveness. Consequently 'War in the Air' means social destruction instead of victory as the end of war. It not only alters the methods of war but the consequences of war.

Raymond CollishawView a brief profile and artifacts related to Air Vice Marshal Raymond Collishaw. From the Canadian War Museum.

Somewhere in the book, we're told that about a third of all these heavier-than-air flying machines killed their solo pilots. Clearly, the new air force isn't the place for the faint of heart. Bert feels unsafe, even in the relative safety of the airship, though he's later dismayed to learn that a young man was shot dead by a rifle bullet, though this whole time he never realized the Vaterland had come under fire. Meanwhile, the battle rages on: Port Moresby, as the premier Allied base in Papua, was the target of 94 Japanese air raids to January 1943. Milne Bay was also the scene of air encounters between Australian P-40 fighters, led by the aces Keith (Bluey) Truscott and Peter Turnbull, and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Among the Japanese pilots who fought over Milne Bay were two of their top aces, Sakai Saburo and Nishizawa Hiroyoshi. The War in the Air: And Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared While It Lasted is a military science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells and published in 1908. of 'em,” muttered Grubb, “up comes a counter-attraction. Go it, Bert!”“Ting-a-ling-a-ting-a-ling-a-ting-a-ling-a-tang

CHAPTER V. THE BATTLE OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

Although aerial combat was never the primary role of air power, the heroes it generated became perhaps the most enduring legacy of the air war. The term ‘ace’ was applied to pilots who shot down at least five enemy aircraft. Friederich Lubbert served with Germany’s most famous ace, Manfred von Richthofen. there was a notice board at the corner with “Wait here for the cars.”“That's all right, any'ow,” said Bert. “Wonder 'ow long I should 'ave to Canada and, like all veterans, sought to reconnect with loved ones and find jobs. Many of the Great War flyers mapped the North or delivered mail to remote communities as bush Long-service pilots suffered ongoing strain, with many unable to sleep or find peace. Young men lost weight and suffered ulcers. Many sought escape with alcohol. The fear of most pilots was to go down as a ‘flamer,’ with the engine on fire, the flames