Ian M Burns

"The work of the East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron was very seldom mentioned in published official reports and its record is accordingly very little known, yet without its story the familiar one of the campaign in Palestine and Syria is incomplete."A unique first-hand account of the East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron during the First World War by its intelligence officer. Through personal anecdotes and original line sketches, C.E. Hughes captures both the military operations and daily life of naval airmen based at Port Said. The book details their reconnaissance work over Palestine, raids on Turkish positions, and leisure time in Cairo, offering valuable insights into the war in the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea.The book features 63 of Hughes' elegant black-and-white sketches depicting locations across the region, including Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, Gaza, Askalon, Ramleh, Ludd, Tul Keram, El Fule, Haifa, Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Damascus. Hughes also illustrates several Royal Navy seaplane carriers-HMS Anne, Raven, Ben-my-Chree, Empress, and City of Oxford-along with a Short floatplane stationed at the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) base in Port Said.Originally published in 1930 by Ernest Benn Limited, London, this new annotated edition faithfully reproduces the original text and illustrations. An afterword by aviation historian Ian M. Burns gives biographical details of Hughes's life and career.Ian Michael Burns, a British aerospace engineer turned aviation historian, has dedicated his career to documenting early naval aviation. His published works include a 2008 history of HMS Ben-my-Chree and a 2014 examination of Royal Naval Air Service North Sea operations, alongside numerous contributions to military aviation journals. Burns' upcoming 2025 release, Floatplanes Over The Desert, chronicles the little-known operations of French and British floatplanes behind enemy lines during WWI, covering activities from the Palestinian coast to the Maldives, Gallipoli, and Salonika, enriched with rare photographs and meticulous research.

The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) origins were as the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps in April 1912, but did not become a separate service until 1 July 1914. Its members created a dedicated arm of the Royal Navy with the intention of operating aircraft in support of the Fleet. On the outbreak of war in August 1914, the service expanded to include service on land, initially in support of the Royal Naval Division in Belgium, later providing support to the RFC and as one of the early practitioners of strategic bombing. However, The RNAS and the Birth of the Aircraft Carrier 1914-1918 traces the development and operational use of aircraft serving with the Fleet. It follows the selection and training of personnel and the struggle to produce suitable aircraft and weapons, including the evolution of the aircraft carrier. Nonetheless, the constant thread throughout is the operational history of the RNAS over the North Sea with both the Grand Fleet and Harwich Force. Commencing over Cuxhaven on Christmas Day 1914 and ending with two pivotal operations which determined the future of naval aviation, these pivotal operations dictated seaborne warfare to the present day