Royal Air Force

The year 1998 witnessed the RAF's 80th anniversary. Covering main campaigns and historic milestones, the narrative relates the history of the RAF from its formation in 1918 through the wartime years and into the precarious peace of the nuclear age.

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In the first 80 years of its existence as an independent air arm the Royal Air Force has gained major achievements in both war and peace. To mark the 80th anniversary of its formation in 1998, aviation author Roy Conyers Nesbit has written this illustrated history of Britain's "junior" service. Covering all the main campaigns and historical events, the concise narrative relates the history of the RAF from its formation on 1 April 1918, through the testing years of the interwar period, the desperate struggle of World War II, and the precarious peace of the nuclear age, and concludes with the high-tech RAF of the late-1990s.