Page 7 - Demo

7fi%u0001'#%u0004%u0001%u0006%u0018%u001a%u0005fiffi%u0010%u0006%u0008%u0006%u0018ffi%u0007%u0010%u0007%u0010%u0006%u0004%u0007%u0001%u0006%u0008%u0001%u0009%u000c%u0006%u000c%u00170()%u0016%u0015(/%u0006%u0009%u00131%u0006Sebastian Cox joined the Air Historical Branch in 1984, and has been its Head since 1996. He has written widely on the RAF and air power, including editing the Studies in Air Power series published by Frank Cass, and has lectured to military and civilian audiences as far afield as the USA, Canada, France, Germany, NewZealand and elsewhere. Air Marshal thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is always a great pleasure to address members of the society and today I have been asked to talk on the relationship between the RAF and the dominion air forces in the inter8war period. In the twenty minutes available I do not think I can really properly do justice to the full extent of the co8operation and assistance between the Royal Air Force and the major dominion air forces, namely Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. I will therefore adopt the approach of looking in some detail at one air force, in this case the Royal Australian Air Force which was the largest and most important, and giving you an indication at the end of the lecture of the similarities and differences which pertain to the other dominions. The relationship between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force goes back to the shared combat experience of the First World War. In April 1918, with the First World War still raging and victory apparently far from sight, and doubtless with the RAF%u2019s creation in mind, a perspicacious Australian soldier, Major General J G Legge, pressed his government to establish an air service and to do so without delay.1 Almost at the same time as Legge%u2019s proposal went forward a suggestion was also made for the creation of an Australian naval air service. This latter proposal, however, was largely the work of an RAF officer, Wing Commander H A Maguire, ex8Royal Naval Air Service, who was air service adviser to the Australian Naval Board.2 These two parallel proposals were then considered by a number of committees and sub8committees on which both Maguire and Legge served. It will come as no surprise that the army and navy officers began to squabble over the respective service allocations. It was