Flying Corps Headquarters, 1914-1918

by Maurice Baring

Maurice Baring made an unlikely soldier but during the First World War, at the age of forty, he obtained a commission and became Private Secretary to Hugh Trenchard, Commander of the Royal Flying Corps in France, and, later on, creator of the Royal Air Force.

Drawn from letters and diaries, Baring describes the momentous war years that forged the flying services. The embryo RAF was lucky to have such an observant and eloquent chronicler of its early years. General Foch said 'There never was a Staff Officer in any country, in any century like Major Maurice Baring'. When first published in 1920, it was hailed 'as one of the few war books that will survive'.

Genres: History

313 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Maurice Baring OBE (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During World War I, Baring served in the Intelligence Corps and Royal Air Force.

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

A veritable daily diary recording the evolution of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) between 1914 and 1918 by the author, who served as Private Secretary to the senior officer of the RFC, Hugh "Boom" Trenchard. Baring was a man of many talents and the clarity and liveliness of his writing attests to that.

[NDH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Largely constructed from letters and diary entries, this post-war (1920) memoire is a valuable record of one man’s experiences near the top of the Royal Flying Corps during the Great War. There are a lot of things this book is not. It is not gossipy or political. No one gets criticized for bad behavior or bad decisions, no score-settling, no self-aggrandizement. Perhaps too much self-deprecation if anything; Baring’s job seems to be to deal with seemingly trivial matters that are, in fact, life or death. The jobs of staff officers are important and undertaken with seriousness of purpose, notwithstanding the pleasure so many take in characterizing them as ‘donkeys leading lions’. The RFC did a good job during the Somme battle which served its purpose, i.e., to relieve pressure on Verdun. (This book is not ‘Catch 22’, where only the immaculate narrator floats serenely above his moral inferiors.) Friends are killed. Suffering is both witnessed and experienced. Baring does a good job of articulating and defending Britain’s air strategy (offense, not defense), and wisely lays the blame for the weaknesses in Britain’s military preparedness on The People, which is where it belongs in a democracy. Some funny anecdotes (Chinese laborers went on strike because the French bread which had replaced their American bread had too many air pockets in it so they felt cheated.) Some interesting comments on what he reads during the war; he doesn’t seem to care much for Henry James, although anyone (like Baring) who reads all of Dante, in Italian, is not quite normal I suspect.

Baring’s seems like a good perch from which to have taken part in the War, and his observations and opinions are solid. I’m looking forward to reading his autobiography.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a reprint of a journal written during WWI by a man closely associated with the establishment and growth of the British flying corps in Europe.
It is hearing history as it is being made a century ago with the innovations of the time, the timelessness of wartime suffering, battlefront humor and camaraderie. His writing brings to life this particular arena of a time and a war so different, yet so like our own. From our perspective, all these years later, it is amazing what these men were able to accomplish.
History geeks, arise and dig into this book!
Received at my request courtesy of NetGalley.