About two years ago I posted a nine-episode serial about early military flying called “Leonard’s War”.

This story follows an RFC aviator on his journey from flying lessons at Brooklands, Surrey in 1915 to Squadron Commander over Flanders in 1918. Once in France, he flies with 7 Sqn over Ypres, returns to UK in 1916 to command 15 (Reserve) Squadron in Doncaster – a mission training unit – and commands 22 Sqn over Passchendaele and Cambrai.

If you missed “Leonard’s War” at the time, I recommend you try it. Even if you did read it then, I suggest you re-visit, because – following extensive research – I have added much new material and corrected earlier detail.

It has struck me that, in many accounts about military aviation in the Great War, there seemed to be two separate battles going on: one in the air where gallant aces shot each other down in dogfights, the other on the ground where soldiers crouched in trenches and emerged to die on muddy battlefields. “Leonard’s War” – as now revised – describes how the airmen and soldiers learned to cooperate, and how aviation changed everything about a war that began in 1914 with cavalry charges in Flanders and ended with airborne stereoscopic photo-reconnaissance and close-air-support to troops on the ground.

Click here for “Leonard’s War”.