InfoBritain

 

Imperial War Museum Duxford, Cambridgeshire

Red Arrows Over St Margaret's Bay Near Dover

The first powered flight of a heavier than air flying machine took place on December 17th 1903 in Dayton, Ohio. By the start of the First World War aircraft were being used for reconnaissance over battlefields. Aircraft were then given machine guns, and the era of combat aircraft had begun.

The ominous effectiveness of aircraft as weapons was first demonstrated in Somaliland and in Afghanistan. In the early twentieth century Mullah Mohammed bin Abdullah Hasser of Somaliland, mounted a campaign against British rule.. Between 1904 and 1918 the British mounted four expeditions against him, using thousands of men, and millions of pounds. Then on the 21st of January 1920 a bombing raid was mounted against Hassar at Medishe. The RAF unit consisted of 36 officers, 189 enlisted men, and six DH9 bombers. The raids continued twice daily. Within a month Hasser had escaped to Abyssinia, and the RAF unit was back in Britain. Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that it would have cost six million pounds to mount a conventional operation. The RAF operation cost £70 000. Aircraft provided an effective and cheap way to fight war. A single RAF aircraft had similar success against the emir of Afghanistan in 1919. It was then decided that aircraft would be used to enforce Britain's mandate in Iraq following the settlement at the end of the First World War. Churchill stood ready to allow the dropping of gas bombs on rebellious groups, although thankfully this did not happen.

Aircraft hastened the move to a new sort of war that had no limits. It was no longer only people on the battlefield who were involved in the fighting. Of course there had been sieges since the age of Troy in which civilians had been caught up in war, but generally speaking it had been groups of soldiers who had fought each other, in limited places called battlefields. In Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth the king refers to himself and his army at the Battle of Agincourt as "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers." Churchill made a reference to this quote when he said of the Battle of Britain pilots that "never in the field of human conflict had so much been owned by so many to so few." In Henry the Fifth it does seem as though the band of brothers are engaged in their own struggle with their enemies. Home is far away, and not involved. By the time of the Battle of Britain the battlefield was the sky itself. This battle has often been described as a return to the age of Medieval warfare, in that the fate of nations depended on a struggle between two small groups of men. In that sense Churchill's reference to the Henry the Fifth's "few" is particularly apt. On the other hand this handful of men was fighting in the sky above England, the Channel, the North Sea. By September London was being regularly bombed. The battlefield had no limits. In the age of the aircraft, everyone is now, potentially, one of the few.

The Imperial War Museum Duxford has Europe's leading collection dedicated to air warfare. There is also a large collection of other military vehicles and naval exhibits, and a collection dedicated to the United States air force, who flew from Duxford during the Second World War.

Opening Times: open daily, except the period 24th - 26th December. From 15th March until 26th October, 10am - 6pm, last admission 5pm. And from 27th October until 14th March, 10am - 4pm, last admission 3pm.

Directions: Duxford is in Cambridgeshire, just off the M11 at junction 10. Buses run every half an hour through the day from Bus Stop B in Emmanuel Street, Cambridge. People using the bus service receive discount on their museum admission charge. There is free car parking at the museum. Click here for an interactive map centred on the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

Access: most of the site has level access. Adapted toilet facilities are available. Guide dogs are welcome, and touch sessions can be arranged on request.

Contact:

telephone: 01223 835 000

web site: http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/