Scottish Aerodromes of the 1920s and 1930s

Author: Malcolm Fife
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
The end of the First World War brought with it the closure most of the military aerodromes in Scotland. It, however, retained its links with naval aviation with aircraft carriers frequently exercising off the coast. In the latter part of the decade Auxiliary Air Force squadrons were formed at Edinburgh and Glasgow manned by civilians. With the rise of the Nazis in Germany, the RAF responded by building new airfields or re-opening former First World War sites. They included armament practice camps at Evanton and West Freugh where pilots could practice their skills in bombing and firing their weapons. RAF flying boats also visited various coastal locations around Scotland in the years leading up to the War. The inter-war services also saw the development of scheduled airline services within the country. They were, however, not between major towns but linked remote islands with major towns of the mainland. An air ambulance service was also created to serve isolated communities. All of these developments are covered as well as private flying and gliding. There is also a section on aerodromes that were planned but never built.

Scottish Airfields in the Second World War: The Lothians

Author: Martyn Chorlton
Publisher: British Airfields in the Secon
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
An account of the part played by the airfields in the Lothians during the Second World War; the planes and pilots who flew them; and the local civilians who worked alongside them.

World War One Aircraft Carrier Pioneer

Author: Guy Warner
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1783461306
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Book Description
Jack McCleery was born in Belfast in 1898, the son of a mill owning family. He joined the RNAS in 1916 as a Probationary Flight Officer. During the next ten months he completed his training at Crystal Palace, Eastchurch, Cranwell, Frieston, Calshot and Isle of Grain, flying more than a dozen landplanes, seaplanes and flying boats, gaining his wings as a Flight Sub-Lieutenant. In July 1917 he was posted to the newly commissioning aircraft carrier HMS Furious, which would be based at Scapa Flow and Rosyth. He served in this ship until February 1919, flying Short 184 seaplanes and then Sopwith 1 Strutters off the deck. He also flew a large number of other types during this time from shore stations at Turnhouse, East Fortune and Donibristle.He served with important and well-known naval airmen including Dunning, Rutland (of Jutland) and Bell Davies VC. He witnessed Dunnings first successful landing on a carrier flying a Sopwith Pup in 1917 and his tragic death a few days later. He also witnessed the Tondern raid in 1918, the worlds first carrier strike mission. He took part in more than a dozen sweeps into the North Sea by elements of the Grand Fleet and Battle Cruiser Fleet. He carried out reconnaissance missions off the coast of Denmark, landing in the sea to be picked up by waiting destroyers. He witnessed the surrender of the High Seas Fleet. Promoted to Captain, he acted as temporary CO of F Squadron for a time postwar.

Aerodromes Of Fighter Command

Author: Robin J Brooks
Publisher: After the Battle
ISBN: 1399076833
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description
RAF Fighter Command was established in July 1936 to provide the airborne element in the defense of Britain against air attack. The aerodromes under the Command described in this book came under the control of several Groups: No. 9 in the west, No. 10 covering the south-west, No. 11 in the south-east, No.?12 on the eastern side of the country, and Nos. 13 and 14 protecting the extreme north. In this volume the activities of over 90 airfields are described and illustrated in our ‘then and now’ theme, both on the ground and from above. Many, having served their purpose, have returned to farmland leaving only odd vestiges to recall their former role as front-line fighter stations. Others have succumbed to the encroachment of housing or industry or even been totally expunged from the map through mining activities. On the other hand, a number have continued to be used as airfields, either for sport or business flying, and some continue as major airports with modern facilities. Sadly the post-war years have witnessed the slow decline of the RAF presence at so many of their former bases, two having closed during our research for this book. And some have found a new lease of life with the Army . . . or even the Ministry of Justice! All came into their own during the six years of war and the scars from that battle are still evident if one cares to look. Moldering buildings from the former era remain as poignant reminders of the airmen and women who once inhabited them . . . now standing almost as memorials to the thousands who never came through. This is their story.

Scotland from the Sky

Author: James Crawford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781849172523
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
'In this book, you will travel in both space and time, starting in the years around the First World War and moving all the way up to the present day. As you go, you will see just what our pioneering aviators saw as they stared out from their cockpits. And, more than that, you will explore what they were trying to find. Because, from above, Scotland can be many different things, depending on what you choose to look at - and who is doing the looking.'Accompanying the BBC documentary series Scotland from the Sky, this lavishly illustrated book draws on the vast collection of aerial photography held in the archives of Historic Environment Scotland. Historian and series presenter James Crawford opens an extraordinary window into our past to tell the remarkable story of a nation from above - taking readers back in time to show how our great cities have dramatically altered with the ebb and flow of history, while whole communities have vanished in the name of progress. The book shows how aerial imagery can reveal treasures from the ancient past, uncovering secrets buried right beneath our feet. And it demonstrates how the view from above has been at the heart of the postwar transformation of both our countryside and our urban landscapes.This is a fascinating - and little known - story of war, innovation, adventure, cities, landscapes and people. This is the story of Scotland, from the sky.

British Airship Bases of the Twentieth Century

Author: Malcolm Fife
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Book Description
Numerous books have been written on airships, but few concentrate on their bases and infrastructure to support their operations. British Airship Bases of the Twentieth Century starts with documenting the primitive facilities from which the early machines flew in the years prior to the First World War. The outbreak of the First World War resulted in airships being adopted for military purposes and bases were established across Britain. Most of these were operated by the Royal Naval Air Service for the protection of shipping against U-boats. In the 1920s, an attempt was made by the British Government to build airships for commercial transport. The locations where these giants of the sky were constructed are described as well as the proposed overseas passenger terminals. The latter part of this enthralling and detailed book chronicles the attempt to establish the airship as a means of transport to link together the far flung lands of the British Empire. Reference is also made at attempts to revive the airship in the closing decade of the 20th century and the locations associated with them. Illustrations: 170 black and white photographs

A History of Scotland

Author: Alastair Gray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780199170630
Category : Scotland
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Book Description
This is a reissue of a popular text, for Standard Grade History exams. We have added 8 pages 'Into the Millennium' to update the text, and added exam questions under the new headings of Knowledge and Understanding and Line of Enquiry, at General and Credit levels.

Conflict Landscapes and Archaeology from Above

Author: Birger Stichelbaut
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351949691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Book Description
The study of conflict archaeology has developed rapidly over the last decade, fuelled in equal measure by technological advances and creative analytical frameworks. Nowhere is this truer than in the inter-disciplinary fields of archaeological practice that combine traditional sources such as historical photographs and maps with 3D digital topographic data from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) and large scale geophysical prospection. For twentieth-century conflict landscapes and their surviving archaeological remains, these developments have encouraged a shift from a site oriented approach towards landscape-scaled research. This volume brings together an wide range of perspectives, setting traditional approaches that draw on historical and contemporary aerial photographs alongside cutting-edge prospection techniques, cross-disciplinary analyses and innovative methods of presenting this material to audiences. Essays from a range of disciplines (archaeology, history, geography, heritage and museum studies) studying conflict landscapes across the globe throughout the twentieth century, all draw on aerial and landscape perspectives to past conflicts and their legacy and the complex issues for heritage management. Organized in four parts, the first three sections take a broadly chronological approach, exploring the use of aerial evidence to expand our understanding of the two World Wars and the Cold War. The final section explores ways that the aerial perspective can be utilized to represent historical landscapes to a wide audience. With case studies ranging from the Western Front to the Cold War, Ireland to Russia, this volume demonstrates how an aerial perspective can both support and challenge traditional archaeological and historical analysis, providing an innovative new means of engaging with the material culture of conflict and commemoration.

The Scottish Golf Book

Author: Malcolm Campbell
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
ISBN: 9781583820537
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
Golf is a Scottish game. It has been played by the Scots for centuries, and Scotland is its spiritual and cultural home. This is a book devoted to one nation's devotion to a game of stick and ball which today casts its enchantment over the entire world. The beginnings of golf and its early development are shrouded in mystery and are part fact and part fable. The Scottish Golf Book separates one from the other as it traces the early history of golf to the multimillion-dollar, worldwide obsession it has become today. Images from the earliest days of Scottish photography recall titanic battles between the early superstars of the game, while the modern lens takes the reader on a spectacular and magical journey around the historic, the classic, and the hidden treasures of Scotland's finest courses.

Scotland and Tourism

Author: Alastair J. Durie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317520688
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
Tourism has long been important to Scotland. It has become all the more significant as the financial sector has faltered and other mainstays are in apparent long-term decline. Yet there is no assessment of this industry and its place over the long run, no one account of what it has meant to previous generations and continues to mean to the present one, of what led to growth or what indeed has led people of late to look elsewhere. This book brings together work from many periods and perspectives. It draws on a wide range of source material, academic and non-academic, from local studies and general analyses, visitors’ accounts, hotel records, newspaper and journal commentaries, photographs and even cartoons. It reviews arguments over the cultural and economic impact of tourism, and retrieves the experience of the visited, of the host communities as well as the visitors. It questions some of the orthodoxies – that Scott made Scott-land, or that it was charter air flights that pulled the rug from under the mass market – and sheds light on what in the Scottish package appealed, and what did not, and to whom; how provision changed, or failed to change; and what marketing strategies may have achieved. It charts changes in accommodation, from inn to hotel, holiday camp, caravanning and timeshare. The role of transport is a central feature: that of the steamship and the railway in opening up Scotland, and later of motor transport in reshaping patterns of holidaymaking. Throughout there is an emphasis on the comparative: asking what was distinctive about the forms and nature of tourism in Scotland as against competing destinations elsewhere in the UK and Europe. It concludes by reflecting on whether Scotland's past can inform the making and shaping of tourism policy and what cautions history might offer for the future. This prolific long-term analysis of tourism in Scotland is a must-read for all those interested in tourism history.