ABSTRACT
The overarching rhetoric of the Corps aimed to achieve two goals: first, to sustain the Royal Flying Corps (RFC's) offensive momentum, particularly during periods of technological inferiority in which British aviators were operating at a severe disadvantage. Second, such rhetoric enabled Trenchard and the Corps to educate the British army about the value and importance of truly offensive air power in establishing control of the air while resisting calls for measures that would dilute the ability of the RFC to conduct such operations. The consistency of the RFC's rhetoric, which only increased in its forcefulness during 1917 and 1918, has served to obscure the evolving, flexible nature of its approach to controlling the air during the conflict. Mimicking the increasingly intense and attritional struggle in the skies over the Western Front, Trenchard was to conduct his own policy-driven offensive to ensure that increased calls could be effectively resisted by the RFC.
