IN THE EARLY HOURS OF 19 SEPTEMBER 1918, THE RAF LAUNCHED THE OPENING MOVES OF THE BATTLE OF MEGIDDO. IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, AIR POWER INFLUENCED THE GROUND OFFENSIVE IN A GREATER WAY THAN PERHAPS ANY OTHER FIRST WORLD WAR BATTLE. STUART HADAWAY EXPLORES THE RAF’S DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE ARMY.
THE GREAT WAR | AIR POWER OVER MEGIDDO
The Bristol F.2b Fighter, an aircraft ahead of its time in the Middle East theatre of operations. (ALL IMAGES VIA THE AUTHOR)
For the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and, later, the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Palestine, the war had taken a very different arc to that of their colleagues on the Western Front. But after being unopposed over the Sinai Desert from November 1914 until April 1916, the arrival of a single German unit, Fliegerabteilung 300 (FA300), changed the situation radically.
