Through Adversity

How did the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) ‘cavalry of the air’ transform into the strategic RAF of the Cold War? The flying lives of these three pilots combine across the years to illustrate how it happened.Trained on Bristol Boxkites in 1912, Major Leonard Dawes helped shape the RFC in its infancy. Posted to France with BE2s, he saw action at the birth of battlefield reconnaissance and air fighting, then activated many new squadrons during the First World War. Joining the RAF in 1923, Group Captain