RAF: The Birth of the World's First Air Force

The birth of the Royal Air Force marked a pivotal moment in military history. World War I was frozen in the bloody stalemate of trench warfare, which gave strategic urgency to any means of directly attacking enemy resources and morale. The new technologies of air power held promise, and by 1917 German bombers had begun attacking British cities. Amid political debates led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Minister of Munitions Winston Churchill, the RAF was created as an independent f...