War Classics – The Right on the Line

In ancient times, ‘the right of the line’ was the place simultaneously of greatest danger and of greatest honour for any military unit. This probably relates to the vulnerability of the unshielded right side of spear- and shield-bearing warriors. The tradition has persisted to this day, at least on ceremonial occasions. As the historian John Terraine explains in his foreword to his classic 1985 book of the same name, it might seem odd to apply this term to the highly technical RAF, but his argument is that ‘the Royal Air Force found itself without option shouldering the burden of the war when the Army was in eclipse and the Royal Navy strained to its limits’. This is a substant