Last Update
06/09/05

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Affiliates:

The AF Webmaster is a proud Member of:
 

Sector A, No.11 Group,
Fighter Command,
Royal Air Force (V)

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Pilots Since 16/02/04

   Welcome to the Air Fronts Document Repository !

This web site is about World War II Air Power: The Air Services, the developments,  the principles of application over time, the technology and - in many ways - providing the background of the day to day experience of those who brought it into being and those  who had to execute it.

What the reader can expect to find here at the Air Fronts site, is the faithful reproduction  - not necessarily adherent to scientific standards - of original period material on air power and aerial warfare from various allied air services and any related agencies, as is consistent with the current web publishing technology. This web site is about authenticity, not historic truth or accuracy in any respect. For any critical evaluation of the texts, please refer to the growing library of web links and books on the topics presented.

The materials presented on this web site originate mostly from Allied Air Services: The US AAF, US Navy, USMC, the RAF and other Commomwealth services. German Air Force sources - or other - will be presented in translation.

The headings and perspectives may change: From air and ground crew to the scientist or engineer, from high to squadron level command, form the newly joined  Flying Cadet to the accomplished veteran pilot, from the home front - supposed to support the effort - to those who had to endure the effects of air power - one way or another

The Air Fronts site invites the reader to experience the circumstances of a time long gone by looking through the eyes of the contemporaries: Those who actually shaped history. Either as a member of an Air Service or those subjected to the effects of air power application. This site is not about personal accounts - at least not primarily. The sometimes very technical - not to say boring - documents are presented as an often neglected background - or general theme - to those personal accounts found in many books or oral history sites on the web. As something to put those accounts into a "as it happened"  perspective.

You may have watched the movies, you may have read the accounts and biographies of pilots, aircrew members or those in high command. Not to speak of the many analytic books on the topics related.

What you will find here, is what any one of the contemporaries may have read, was supposed to have read or was concerned with at the time. Have you ever looked into the family photo album ? Wondered what was the background of this shot ? How was it back then ? Well, this is the kind of question the Air Fronts site is supposed to help answer.

Read this way, the Air Fronts site may be your ticket to a virtual time machine. However, if you are more interested in technical details, go ahead as well.

Of course. This kind of approach has drawbacks. Not everything - especially not the most secret issues of the time  - have been committed to print or any wider circulation at all. A good many things have been kept secret at the time and for a considerable time beyond. And some of these secrets revealed decades later - like the exploits of "Ultra" - have changed the view of events considerably. On the other hand: Only a very few and select high ranking officials and officers had the full picture at the time.

However, this site does endeavour to offer a - unique - picture of circumstances only revealed to those chiefly concerned some 60 years back. A picture almost forgotten or buried in time.

This site should be of particular interest to the flight simulation enthusiast. Since a good many original resources for technical data, flight training and the likes will be presented over time.

This web site and its authors owe a lot in the way of motivation to those communities and developers of flight sims and combat flight sims who work hard to afford a convincing and authentic representation of air power to a broader public.

Very often misunderstood, these individuals and communities make a past accessible, we hope none of us will have to experience in person.

Enjoy your stay.

Your Air Fronts Team