For our second special interview in this Air War Month on the Old Front Line, we are joined by historian and writer Josh Levine.

Josh is the author of numerous books, is a frequent broadcaster, and has worked as an advisor and films, including Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk.

In 2008, he published on a wing and a prayer about aerial combat in the First World War,

and I'm so pleased to welcome him here to talk about this very subject. So welcome to the podcast, Josh.

Thank you, Paul. It's really, really lovely to be talking to you.

So, the air war was a massive subject, and in a short kind of chat, we can't do it entire

justice, but we can give a bit of a go. And the world was beginning to change in 1914 in all

kinds of ways, wouldn't it? And especially in terms of how warfare would change.

And aircraft became part of the cutting edge of that change.

So what was the situation in terms of aerial warfare at the very beginning of the First World War?

So you have a situation where airplanes exist.

They've not existed for long.

You know, the Wright brothers first flew at the end of 1903. where airplanes exist. They've not existed for long.

You know, the Wright brothers first flew at the end of 1903.

So this is a very, very new technology.

And, you know, it's been causing a certain amount of worry to the British.

The first person to cross the channel in an airplane was a Frenchman, Blereo, in 1909.

And that very much worried the newspapers, the British newspapers, because the idea was Britain isn't an island anymore.

It can be reached by means other than the sea.

So, and, you know, a reward was offered to cross the channel, and it was not intended that it would be a Frenchman who would achieve it.

So the airplane was this extraordinary new technology.

I mean, I think initially it was thought that the future would be more in airships

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