Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Ash - Sir Frederick Sykes and the Air Revolution 1912-1918

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8. Sir Frederick Sykes and the Air Revolution 19121918
E RIC A SH

ERIC ASH

United States Air Force Academy

FRANK CASS

LONDON PORTLAND, OR

First published in 1999 in Great Britain by
FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS.
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN

and in the United States of America by
FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016

Transferred to Digital Printing 2005

Website http://www.frankcass.com

Copyright 1999 Eric Ash

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Ash, Eric

Sir Frederick Sykes and the air revolution, 19121918.
(Cass series. Studies in air power)
1. Sykes, Sir Frederick 2. World War, 19141918Aerial
operations, British
I. Title
940.44091

ISBN 0-7146-4828-0 (cloth)
ISBN 0-7146-4382-3 (paper)
ISSN 1368-5597

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ash, Eric, 1957

Sir Frederick Sykes and the air revolution, 19121918 / Eric Ash.

p. cm. (Cass series studies in air power; 7)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7146-4828-0 (cloth). ISBN 0-7146-4382-3 (pbk)

1. Sykes, Frederick Hugh, Sir, 18771954. 2. World War, 19141918Aerial operations, British. 3. Great Britain. Royal Air ForceBiography. I. Title. II. Series.
D786.A77 1998

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Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London

Between pages 174 and 175

In the history of air power forward-looking airmen have often become victims of bureaucracies, and Sir Frederick Sykes was just such a person. Even among scholars of air power Sykes has never enjoyed the recognition of his more famous contemporaries such as Lord Trenchard, Giulio Douhet, and General Billy Mitchell. He fell instead into obscurity, even though his work in organizing, training and equipping the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force was crucial to the birth and development of military flying. He had greater vision than many of his colleagues, whose ideas proved more acceptable to the establishment at the time. Sykes, in contrast, never received proper recognition for his seminal accomplishments owing to politics and prejudice. He should have been recognized for the depth and breadth of his conceptual thinking on air power, which led to unique advances in military thinking. He refused to give up in the face of entrenched opposition, and even after he was removed from the center of the military aviation arena he continued to serve in a variety of public positions unrelated to military aviation.

The world's air forces were able to grow into the powerful independent services they are today because of staunchly committed airmen such as Sykes. At long last this study of Sykes brings to light important aspects of air power that had previously been overlooked. Serious students of aviation history should read this book, and I recommend it to all airmen who wish to learn more about their heritage.

G ENERAL R ONALD R. F OGELMAN
July, 1998

The impact of the First World War on the development of air power has long been recognized. There have also been biographical studies of many of the airmen who played leading roles in the rise of British military aviation and the creation of the world's first independent air force, including Lord Trenchard, Sir Sefton Brancker and Sir John Salmond. All these studies were, however, written more than 30 years ago, before the major official papers relating to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the First World War were made available. Largely based on the memories and personal papers of the protagonists, these works were more than usually partial. Therefore, not only does this study of Major-General Sir Frederick Sykes represent the first proper assessment of his life and contribution to military aviation, but it is also the first biographical study of a senior First World War British airman to make use of the full range of official material now available to scholars. In so doing, it not only offers us new and important insights into Sykes himself, but also throws new light on the relationships in the high command of the RFC and then the RAF, and improves our understanding of other important figures involved, especially Lord Trenchard and Sir David Henderson.

There is little doubt that the part played by Sykes in the early years of British aviation has been eclipsed, partly as a result of aspects of his own character, and partly because, ultimately, he lost out in the bureaucratic battle to head the Royal Air Force in the post-war era. Eric Ash succeeds in demonstrating both the originality of Sykes thinking and the practical contribution he made to the eventual success of the RAF in battle. The analysis is also sufficiently dispassionate and penetrating to reveal the weaknesses in Sykes personal make-up which so bedevilled his relations with others, and which were to prove a significant factor in preventing his achieving all that he sought for the Royal Air Force and British aviation. At the same time, it reveals the degree to which some facets of Sykes character have been exaggerated, notably his supposed taste for intrigue.

As students of air power increasingly recognize, the achievements of military aviation in 191418 have too often been viewed through the distorting prism of the later experience of 193945. Eric Ash's study is a valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship devoted to analyzing the policies and thinking of the era in a more objective fashion.