Cox, Sebastian

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COX, Sebastian

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Air Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HW, England. Agent—Frank Cass, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE, England.

CAREER:

Head of Air Historical Branch, U.K. Ministry of Defence.

WRITINGS:

"AIR DEFENCE OF GREAT BRITAIN" SERIES

(Editor) T. C. G. James, The Battle of Britain, volume two, Frank Cass (London, England), 2000.

(Editor) T. C. G. James, The Growth of Fighter Command, 1936-1940, Volume one, Whitehall History Publishing/Frank Cass (London, England), 2001.

OTHER

(With Jeffrey Quill) Birth of a Legend: The Spitfire, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 1986.

(Editor, with Henry Probert) The Battle Re-thought: A Symposium on the Battle of Britain: 25 June 1990, Airlife Publishing (Shrewsbury, England), 1991.

(Author of introduction) Sir Arthur Travers Harris, Despatch on War Operations: 23rd February 1942 to 8th May 1945, Frank Cass (London, England), 1995.

(Author of introduction) The Strategic Air War against Germany, 1939-1945: The Official Report of the British Bombing Survey Unit, Frank Cass (London, England), 1998.

(Editor, with Peter Gray) Air Power History: Turning Points from Kitty Hawk to Kosovo, Frank Cass (London, England), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

As head of the Air Historical Branch of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence, researching and presenting the history of Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF), Sebastian Cox has written widely about the RAF's role in various important battles and about controversies that have surrounded that branch of the British military.

One such controversy concerns the effectiveness of RAF bombing campaigns during World War II (1939-1945). A decades-long debate, fueled mostly by anecdotal evidence and hearsay, centered on whether the loss of civilian lives could be justified and whether the air raids played a decisive role in Germany's defeat. In 1944 the RAF commissioned a study to investigate the effectiveness of the bombings. The official report was classified, however, and not available for publication until more than fifty years after the war ended. The Strategic Air War against Germany, 1939-1945: The Official Report of the British Bombing Survey Unit was published in 1998, with Cox providing introductory commentary. In the introduction, his assessment of the report is that it "contains a wealth of information of great value to historians, provided they are aware of the background and prejudices of those compiling it, and use it with care and discrimination."

Cox was praised by critics for his balanced and insightful review of the report. Michael Howard of the Times Literary Supplement called Cox's introduction "critical" and "careful," stating that "now that [the report] has at least been published, interest is likely to focus not so much on the body of the Report … as on Cox's admirably judicious critique." Phillip Meilinger of the Airpower Journal referred to Cox as "starkly objective in his assessment of the [British government's report] …, pointing out its flaws and biases, while also noting its important insights."

Air Power History: Turning Points from Kitty Hawk to Kosovo, edited by Cox and RAF director of defence studies Peter Gray, is a collection of essays presented at an RAF conference in 2001. The conference's theme was turning points in the history of air power; the book's subjects therefore include air defenses prior to and during World Wars I and II, the Spanish Civil War, the Gulf War, and the NATO-led campaign into Kosovo. In the Air & Space Power Journal, David Mets lauded the "judgment and efficiency of the editors" and noted: "The editing is clean—hardly an error occurs anywhere in the text, a considerable achievement in such an anthology."

Cox has made his expertise available at seminars and conferences around the world, such as the 2004 Society for Military History annual meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, where he led a discussion group titled "Manufactured Controversy—One Historian's Personal View of the Trend in Modern T.V. and Radio Documentaries," and a 2000 lecture at the Triangle Institute for Security Studies at Duke University titled "Historiography of the Battle of Britain."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air & Space Journal, fall, 2003, David R. Mets, review of Air Power History: Turning Points from Kitty Hawk to Kosovo, p. 112.

Airpower Journal, winter, 1999, Phillip S. Meilinger, review of The Strategic Air War against Germany, 1939-1945: The Official Report of the British Bombing Survey Unit, pp. 107-108.

Contemporary Review, July 1999, review of The Strategic Air War against Germany, 1939-1945, p. 56.

Times Literary Supplement, August 21, 1998, Michael Howard, review of The Strategic Air War against Germany, 1939-1945, p. 10.