‘Knights of the Air’: joyful slaughter and the pleasures of moral survival

Abstract

In this paper I investigate ‘joyful slaughter’, the pleasures of sanctioned killing, as represented in diaries and letters written during combat by World War I airmen of the British Royal Flying Corps. I suggest killing as only one, and potentially the least pleasurable, aspect of combat scenarios by examining its connection to a range of ‘regulating’ and ‘mobilising’ emotional practices centred in the interdependent geographies of chivalrous duty and exhilarating flight. I make the case for the triumph of joyful survival over joyful slaughter as a consequence of the moral performance of killing rather than being killed.

Keywords:

• World War I
• history of emotions
• pleasure
• masculinity
• airmen
• Royal Flying Corps

Notes

1. Sources include letters (L) and diaries (D) written during combat, hereafter designated as (L) and (D). Source material is located in collections housed in the Imperial War Museum and the Royal Air Force Museum, hereafter designated as (IW) and (RAF).