Showcases images of biplane fighters, such as the Hawker Fury, the
Hawker Hart and the Gloster Gladiator, as well as monoplane fighters,
including the Hurricane I, the Spitfire, and the Vickers Venom.
Through the use of contemporary photographs and informative captions,
Prelude To War: The RAF 1936-1939 chronicles many of the RAF's
aircraft that continued to serve in the years immediately preceding the
start of hostilities in 1939, a period of rapid technological change and
mechanical innovation at a time when many European nations held their
collective breath as, yet again, they witnessed the steady rise of
German militarism and, ultimately, conquest.
Forced to take note of this emerging threat the British government
authorized a policy of modernizing and re-equipping Britain's armed
forces. This process, frequently confusing and fitful, was by 1936
taking shape with the RAF at the forefront of modernization, although as
Winston Churchill solemnly noted in 1937, 'It was no longer in our power
to forestall Hitler or to regain air parity. Nothing could now prevent
the German Army and the German Air Force from becoming the strongest in
Europe...we could only improve our position. We could not cure it.'
To this day, isolated perceptions still linger to the effect that by
September 1939 the RAF had become an all-monoplane force with Fighter
Command fielding countless squadrons of Hurricanes and Spitfires ready
to overwhelm any enemy insolent enough to enter British skies.
Similarly, the same perceptions suggest that a confident Bomber Command
stood ready to darken German skies with armadas of modern bombers. These
notions were wide of the mark - such was the power of propaganda!
Certainly, numbers of monoplanes did exist, but until the aircraft
industry could expand to cope with the demands of a modern war, fleets
of obsolescent biplanes had to be employed in secondary roles, with
others remaining in the front line until monoplanes could replace them:
there was no other choice.
It is hoped that this modest work will shed light on some of the RAF's
better known aircraft of the period, but more particularly upon those
that remain virtually unknown today and which might be described as
having 'also ran'.
