A New Book – A Military Transformed?

As I have noted over on Birmingham “On War” I have just signed the contracts for my first book. It is a collection of essays from the symposium from April on Transformation and Innovation in the British Military. I will be editing it with Stuart Mitchell and Dr Michael LoCicero. It is to be entitled, A Military Transformed? Transformation and Innovation in the British Military, 1792 to 1945. You can follow updates to it over on the War Studies blog. However, there will be several interesting air power chapters that will be of interest to readers. Here are the air power chapters:

1. James Pugh (University of Birmingham) ‘Naval Wing Good, Military Wing Bad? An Orwellian inspired analysis of British Aviation Doctrine, 1912-1914’
2. John Alexander (University of Birmingham) “Despised and Neglected’: Transformation and Innovation in British Air Defence, 1922-1935’
3. Ross Mahoney (University of Birmingham) ‘Operation JUBILEE and the Transformation of Air Support for Combined Operations: The Case of Command and Control and Aerial Bombardment’
4. Richard Hammond (University of Exeter) ‘British Aero-Naval Co-Operation in the Mediterranean and the Formation of RAF No. 201 (Naval Co-Operation) Group’

These were really interesting papers so should be excellent papers. The book will be published by Helion and Company and will be out in 2013.

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What can the Royal Aeronautical Society do for you?

One of the many activities I undertake is that I am the Student Representative on the committee of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Air Power Group. The group is one of the specialist groups of the society and ‘it arose from the wish of the then President of the Society to promote interest in the study of air power and to enable the Society to offer views on air power topics.’ One of the great success of the group has been the establishment of the Senior Research Fellow in Air Power Studies at the University of Birmingham, which is held by Air Commodore (ret’d) Dr Peter Gray. This position has seen an expansion in the provision of the academic study of air power with the emergence of an MA in Air Power: History, Theory and Practice and numerous PhD students now studying the topic at Birmingham. Because of this increased provision, I ‘volunteered’ to act as a student representative.

Therefore, what I would like to know from those students at any institution studying air power related topics (this is broadly defined, and encompasses history, law, ethics, and strategic studies related topics) is what can the group do for you? What support can be provided? All ideas are welcomed. I cannot promise anything but I can take the ideas to the committee and raise any concerns or thoughts that you may have.

Air Power Seminar at the University of Birmingham

The next War Studies Seminar at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Birmingham is an Air Power Seminar and is being given by:

Ross Mahoney

(University of Birmingham)

‘Leadership Effectivness: Understanding a Key Metric of Operational Military History – The Case of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory‘

The event will be on 17 January 2012. The Seminar meets on TUESDAYS at 5.30 p.m. in Lecture Room 1, 1st Floor, Arts Building.

Has the time come for an Air Force Records Society?

[Cross posted at Thoughts on Military History]

A couple of weeks ago I was involved in a panel discussion on the future of Air Power Studies at the Air Power Workshop held at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Birmingham. I was given the task of talking about some of the issues facing students working in the area of Air Power Studies and entitled it, ‘Air Power Students in an Age of Uncertainty’. A couple of the key issues I raised related to the problems of publishing for emerging scholars in the air power field. The first issue related to the demise of the Air Power Studies series that was published by Frank Cass/Routledge and whether or not there is a future in resurrecting a similar series. Hopefully there may well be.

The other issue I raised was whether or not there was a need to start an Air Force Records Society. Both the Army and the Royal Navy has a records society and given that the history of British Air Power is now more than 100 years old has not the time come for such an endeavour? I think it has. The RAF and its predecessors, the RFC and RNAS, have a rich documentary heritage that should be preserved. If we look at the mission of the Army Records Society this could be easily applied to an air force equivalent:

the object of the Army Records Society is to edit and publish manuscripts relating to the Army and to reprint works of military interest

In terms of the manuscript part of this there are plenty of papers that could be reprinted such as the Papers of Major General Sir David Henderson, which would be an interesting first volume. Of course an obvious volume would be on the papers of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Viscount Trenchard. With regards to works of interest there is a fascinating memoir written by Air Marshal Sir Edgar Kingston-McCloughry which is a refreshing honest and critical work that was never published and languishes in his paper at the Imperial War Museum. There are also plenty of interesting works that could be republished under the auspicious of the society. Given the both the Army and Navy Records Society only tend to publish one volume a year I do not think there is an issue of critical mass with regards to it only being a short-lived enterprise. The other key issue is whether or not there would be enough interest from interested parties.

So the question remains has the time come try to start such an organisation? Would you be interested? I think it has and we must try to preserve the history of the third service.

Thoughts and opinions wanted.

Air Power Seminar at the University of Birmingham

Next weeks War Studies Seminar at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Birmingham is one of the Air Power Seminars and is being given by:

James Pugh

(University of Birmingham)

‘Early British Air Power Doctrine and the Influence of the Staff College, 1908-14′

The event will be on 11 October. The Seminar meets on TUESDAYS at 5.30 p.m. in Lecture Room 1, 1st Floor, Arts Building.

Air Power Seminars at the University of Birmingham

This year the following air power seminars will take place at the War Studies Seminar at the University of Birmingham.

11 October 2011

James Pugh (University of Birmingham)

‘Early British Air Power Doctrine and the Influence of the Staff College, 1908-14’

17 January 2012

Ross Mahoney (University of Birmingham)

‘Leadership Effectiveness: Understanding a Key Metric of Operational Military History – Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory, a Case Study’

They will take place at 5:30pm in the Arts Lecture Room 3, First Floor, Arts Building, University of Birmingham

Tweeting Exploring the Frontiers of Air Power Research Workshop

Today is the first day of the Air Power Workshop at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Birmingham. This is an important and exciting event that seeks to explore future avenues of research in the field of Air Power Studies.

Rather than write a report on the two days activities I am tweeting some key points that are raised during the course of the workshop. You can follow these tweets by following the hash tag #airpowerresearch. Hopefully this works.