Australia, the Empire and the Great War in the Air

Despite its distance from Europe and lack of technological and industrial infrastructure Australia demonstrated an early interest in military aviation. Starting with a small flying school intended to train militia airmen, during the Great War the Australian government raised four service squadrons and a training wing for overseas service. Through the Australian Flying Corps (AFC), Australia made a small, but unlike the other dominions, distinct contribution to the empire’s effort in the air. Australians also joined the British flying services, contributing to the broader imperial effort. This thesis substantially revises the account of Australia’s role in the air war presented in Frederic Cutlack’s 1923 volume of the Official history. By using records unavailable to Cutlack and exploring themes beyond his purview, this research places the individual and unit experiences of the AFC, documented in such detail elsewhere, into the contexts that defined and gave them meaning. Through the AFC and the British flying services Australians participated fully in the air war and contributed to the emergence of air power’s importance on the battlefield by 1918. At the same time, however, Australia’s engagement with aviation between 1909 and 1918 was utterly defined by the broader contexts of imperial relations and British air policy. The distinctiveness of Australia’s contribution to the air war is therefore less than it ostensibly appears. Further, comparisons with the other dominions and an analysis of training, administration and command – as well as the campaigns in which Australian airmen fought – suggest that, in fielding its own flying arm, the Australian government unwittingly sacrificed military pragmatism for political expediency without putting Australia on a specially sound footing on which to build an independent air force in the post war years