The Leadership, Direction and Legitimacy of the RAF Bomber Offensive from Inception to 1945

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Leadership, Direction and Legitimacy of the RAF Bomber Offensive from Inception to 1945
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Air Commodore (Ret'd) Dr Peter Gray
SeriesBirmingham War Studies
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:368
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 156
Category/GenreSecond world war
ISBN/Barcode 9781441135209
ClassificationsDewey:940.544941
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Continuum Publishing Corporation
Imprint Continuum Publishing Corporation
Publication Date 9 August 2012
Publication Country United States

Description

The Leadership, Direction and Legitimacy of the RAF Bomber Offensive from Inception to 1945 offers a fresh approach to the debate on the RAF's strategic bomber offensive by using modern strategic leadership theory as an analytical tool to examine the campaign. In particular, it looks at the legality and legitimacy of the offensive and explores the key interfaces between the military leaders, the politicians and allies. It also looks at the major controversies in the aims and objectives of the campaign and the personalities involved. Modern literature from the leadership field is used to consider the challenges facing those charged with the formulation and execution of the offensive. Aspects of the senior leadership disputes are also dealt with in the context of the leadership literature and in the wider context of the strategic challenges then facing Churchill, Sinclair and Portal. Furthermore there is a multi-disciplinary bent to the book that enables the reader to move beyond the narrow confines of military considerations to the thorough investigation of the legality, legitimacy and morality of the offensive that is provided.

Author Biography

Peter Gray is RAeS Senior Research Fellow in Air Power Studies, University of Birmingham, UK.

Reviews

[An] important work ... This excellent book adds a fresh perspective onto what is a well-trodden path in the historiography of the Second World War. * The Second World War Military Operations Research Group *