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I think the emphasis on class distinction is inevitable in portrayals of WW1, since it is such an integral feature of the conflict, and not just for the Brits, but not always in the same way.
The blurring of social distinctions was not just limited to men at the front either; when women were of necessity, brought into factories to do engineering work that had typically been the domain of men, at a time when they were fighting for emancipation, it was a mirror to what was happening at the front as the war progressed. Initially there was a social barrier to making it into the officer class, just as there was a social barrier to women doing skilled engineering work, but in a war with such massive casualties lasting four years, eventually the nation had to start casting the net wider for officer material and skilled labourers. Such a situation is a rich vein of material for drama and character exposition.
Of course the really interesting thing with flying squadrons in WW1, was that a lot of the time, and in contrast to the war on the ground, it was the upper classes who were the ones doing the dying, whereas the working classes were the ones sat in the rear. Admittedly the lower social classes were doing a lot of the work necessary to put those planes in the air, and serving the officers, but officers were the ones going where the meat meets the metal, whereas RFC people lower down the social pecking order had a comparatively 'safe' war.
Anyone who has studied WW1 flying from the German side will know that the situation was practically the reverse of that of the UK in social terms. Initially flyers were seen as little more than grimy chauffeurs for the observers, who were normally the officer and the one in charge of the aeroplane, a situation which occurred on German bombers in WW2 as well. Of course as we know, when those grimy chauffeurs started grabbing the attention of an adoring public, that was when the officers started thinking about getting a piece of the action. This situation is of course what the movie The Blue Max focuses on, and is also vividly brought to life in Richthofen's own book.
If anyone ever gets to making a movie about Mannock or Jones and how they tended to rub the toffee-nosed types up the wrong way by ignoring many social conventions for the officer classes in the RFC, then that would certainly be a film worth watching. And whilst I agree that it is nice to see the action in the air in a movie, the action on the ground, in the mess, is often more likely to light up the screen.
Al
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