Hardcover, steel blue cloth cover, with dust jacket incorporating a clear plastic protective cover, entitled "Canadian Airmen and the First World War - The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Volume I" by S.F. (Sydney F.) Wise, illustrations in the book coming from the Public Archives of Canada and the Imperial War Museum, published by the University of Toronto Press, in co-operation with the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Government Publishing Centre, Supply and Services Canada, printed in Canada in 1980, Government Catalogue Number D2-63-1980, ISBN 0-8020-2379-7. The inside covers feature full colour maps; the front with one map: "Operational Aerodromes in Northern France and Belgium 1914-1918", along with two inset maps: "The Retreat from Mons and the Race for the Sea" and "Bomber Bases 191401918"; the back with one map: "The Mediterranean Royal Air Force Stations, November 1916", along with two inset maps: "Gibraltar Group" and "Egypt Group". It opens with a List of Contents, followed by a List of Maps and Illustrations, a Preface by the author S.F. Wise of the Institute of Canadian Studies at Carleton University, and a List of Abbreviations. The book begins with an Introduction containing one chapter: 1 - Military Aviation before the First World War. The book is then divided into four Parts: Part I: Canadian Training and Air Policy with three chapters (2 - Recruiting and Training in Canada, 1914-16; 3 - Sir Sam Hughes, the Aviation Lobby, and Canadian Air Policy, 1914-16; 4 - RFC Expansion and the Canadian Air Training Organization); Part II: The Admiralty and the Air with four chapters (5 - Origins of Naval Airpower; 6 - 1916: Diffusion and Misdirection; 7 - Alternative Roles, 1917-18; 8 - Aviation and the Victory over the Submarine); Part III: Strategic Airpower with three chapters (9 - The Air Defence of Britain; 10 - The RNAS and the Birth of a Bombing Strategy; 11 - The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany); Part IV: Airpower in the Land Battle with seven chapters (12 - Experiments on the Western Front, 1914-15; 13 - The Birth of Airpower, 1916; 14 - Stalemate on the Western Front, 1917; 15 - Italy and Macedonia, 1917-18; 16 - The Ludendorff Offensives, 1918; 17 - Amiens; 18 - Perfecting the Air Weapon). It finishes with a Conclusion containing one chapter: 19 - Towards the Establishment of a Canadian Air Force, followed by three Appendices, Notes and an Index. The book contains 796 pages of text, along with multiple pages of black and white illustrations inserted at six locations throughout the book, complemented by eighteen sketch maps in black, along with six full colour pull out maps, on a white paper stock, weighing 1.8 kilograms, measuring 175 mm (w) x 250 mm (h) x 57 mm (d). It exhibits very light discolouration on the pages on the bottom, the contents of the book remaining unaffected. Near extremely fine.