BRANCH AGM followed by
“The Royal Flying Corps at War – The Early Years”
Thursday 10th March 2016
Light Refreshments served from 6.45 pm
Branch AGM starts at 7.15 pm
Lecture Starts at 7.30 pm
Speaker: David Rowland
Location: Lecture Theatre ‘2’, Cambridge University Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ.
Please note the change of hall to Lecture Theatre 2 (not our usual LT 0).
Lecture Synopsis
When the RFC crossed to France in August 1914 to take its place alongside the Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI) and the other elements of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the military authorities mainly saw the aeroplane as a platform for reconnaissance.
In itself that was something of a ‘visionary’ step forward from the 1910 statement by the then professional head of the army who said that military aviation was “a useless and expensive fad”.
This talk takes a brief look at the formation of the RFC only a short while before hostilities started, together with a more detailed description of the people and aircraft that went to France in the summer of 1914 as part of this new ‘Aerial Service’ that was to open a whole new chapter in the history of the British at war.