Airfield Histories

The world's first independent air force, the Royal Air Force celebrates its centenary in 2018. In the 100 years since the end of World War I, the service has been involved in almost continuous operations around the globe, giving the RAF the longest and most wide-ranging history of any air force in the world. But over the years this history has also become entangled with myths.

Witness the daring exploits and dangerous challenges that form the story of flight in this beautifully illustrated book, filled with rare photographs and historical documents. Celebrating 50 years since the first flight of the Boeing 747 and of Concorde, it describes the early pioneers, such as the Wright brothers and Alcock & Brown, as well as the highly skilled engineers developing aircraft today.

The landing of Allied forces on the shores of Normandy on 6 June 1944 was the greatest amphibious invasion in history.

Originally intended as a trainer, the Anglo-French Sepecat jet, equipped with the very latest in weapon-aiming and navigational equipment, eventually became the backbone of the RAF's tactical strike-attack and recce forces for a decade from the mid-1970s.

From Richard Pike, author of Grub Street's bestselling Lightning Boys series, comes Hunter Boys, a fascinating insight into the experiences of those who flew the iconic Hawker Hunter, an aircraft known affectionately to many as 'Queen of the Skies'. 

This remarkable work pulls the lid off one of the legendary air forces in history at the very peak of its power-unveiling the and machines as they truly existed day-to-day, underneath the propaganda of their own regime and the scare stories of their enemies.

Valiant Boys is a fascinating collection of personal accounts of operating Britain's first V bomber by aircrew and ground crew.

Though there were airfields in Shropshire during the First World War, at Shawbury, Tern Hill and Monkmoor, it was in the late 1930s that a massive building programme began to dot the county with new RAF airfields, mostly for training purposes, until there were over sixteen - in some cases they were so close together that their circuits overlapped.

As British and American forces closed in from the west, the Russians pushed in hard from the east, and the RAF and USAAF bombed Germany every night and day, the beleaguered Luftwaffe went all-out in a last effort to defend the Fatherland during the last months of the Second World War.