page_title: Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
section_title: Commander of the Royal Flying Corps
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard / First World War / Commander of the Royal Flying Corps
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of a head and shoulders portrait of Major-General H. M. Trenchard in uniform and whilst he was Commander of the Royal Flying Corps in the field. Painted at RFC General Headquarters. Trenchard's upper torso blends in with the textured brown background.
context_page_description: Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the Royal Air Force."
  During his formative years, Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and with the outbreak of the Boer War, he volunteered for service in South Africa. While fighting the Boers, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. On medical advice, Trenchard travelled to Switzerland to recuperate and boredom saw him taking up bobsleighing. After a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Following further recuperation, Trenchard returned to active service in South Africa.
context_section_description: On Henderson's return to the War Office in the summer of 1915, Trenchard was promoted to brigadier-general and appointed Officer Commanding the R.F.C.'s units in France. He was to serve as the head of the R.F.C. in the field until the early days of 1918. In December 1915 when Douglas Haig was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Haig and Trenchard re-established their partnership, this time at a higher level. In March 1916, with the RFC expanding, Trenchard was promoted to major-general.
  Trenchard's time in command of the R.F.C. on the Western Front was characterised by three priorities. First was an emphasis on support to and co-ordination with ground forces. This started with reconnaissance and artillery co-ordination, and later encompassed tactical low-level bombing of enemy ground targets. While he did not oppose the strategic bombing of Germany in principle, he rejected moves to divert his forces on to long-range bombing missions as he believed the strategic role to be less important and his resource to be too limited. Secondly, he stressed the importance of morale, not only of his own airmen, but more generally the detrimental effect that the presence of an aircraft had upon the morale of enemy ground troops. Finally, he had an unswerving belief in the importance of offensive action. Although this belief was widely held by senior British commanders in the war, the R.F.C.'s routinely offensive strategy resulted in the loss of many of its air crews and machines, and some doubted its military validity.
  Following the Gotha raids on London in the summer of 1917, the Government considered creating an air force by merging the R.F.C. and the Royal Naval Air Service. Trenchard opposed this, believing that it would dilute the air support required by the ground forces in France. By October he realised that the creation of an "Air Force" was inevitable and, seeing that he was the obvious candidate to become the new Chief of the Air Staff, he attempted to bring about a scheme whereby he would retain control of the flying units on the Western Front. In this regard he was unsuccessful, and he was succeeded in France by Major-General John Salmond.
caption: Trenchard at the Flying Corps' general headquarters, May 1917, by William Orpen
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