?ORIGINS OF THE AIR BRANCH – World War I – The interwar years RECRUITMENT & TRAINING – Pilots – Observers –Telegraphist Air Gunners – Mechanics – Fighter direction officers – deck landing control officers – Meteorologists – Women’s Royal Naval Service COMMAND STRUCTURE – Chain of command – Squadron composition – Embarked air groups – Mixed squadrons – Squadron numbering & markings CAMPAIGNS – 1939: the Western Approaches – 1940: Norway – France & the Battle of Britain – the Mediterranean: Force H – the Taranto raid – 1941: the Mediterranean – the Bismark – 1942: the ‘Channel Dash’ – the Malta convoys – Operation ‘Torch’ – 1943: Sicily & Italy – Victorious in the Far East – 1944: the Tirpitz raids – the Normandy landings – Operation ‘Dragoon’ – 1944–45: the British Pacific Fleet: the East Indies – Okinawa –Japan TACTICS – Torpedo-bombers – dive-bombers – fighters SOURCES & SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY PLATE COMMENTARIES INDEX

A concise history of the Royal Navy's air arm in battle from 1939 to 1945, from the Artic convoys, via the battle of Malta, to the last raids on Japan with dramatic accounts of Royal Navy pilots battling against Axis forces.