RAF Training Command: A Pictorial History

This is a very interesting, informative and well illustrated book about a less well known aspect of RAF history. It covers the training of aircrew from 1936 onwards (and a little bit before) until 1977 with the absorption of Training Command into Support Command. This is not an area of RAF history that I knew much about and it is certainly a very good introduction to the subject. It is interesting that the whole idea of training seemed to be in a constant change although this is not a surprise as the period covered by the book covers massive change in the RAF in terms of equipment, purpose and reaction to war. Keith Wilson has done very well in trying to make the overall story of these changes coherent and understandable. As ever the strength of the books in this series is the excellent choice of pictures ranging from the Bristol Boxkite to the Hawk. The photographs chosen are very evocative of the times under discussion. Although all aspects of Training Command and the aircraft employed are of interest it was the chapter on the Wartime Overseas Training Programmes that was, for me, the most interesting as my father had trained in Rhodesia during WW2. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the history and development of the RAF.