Research & Publications

Victoria Taylor (r) w/ Allen Packwood & Professor Gaynor Johnson, ‘Opening Event - Who Was Winston Churchill?’, Chartwell Literary Festival (September 2023).

Academic Research

Victoria holds a fervent interest in the history of airpower, aviation and the public imagination. Her research also extends to the general military history of Britain and Germany during the 20th century, whilst placing a keen emphasis on how the cultural, societal and political repercussions of such historical events can still be traced within their respective present-day societies. A former lecturer, she taught in the Department of History at the University of Hull before moving to the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London in 2023. There, she taught at the Defence Academy at Shrivenham, teaching on historical and contemporary air power as part of the Joint Services Command and Staff College courses. Her PhD thesis was entitled ‘Any technical education and flying skills are worthless to us if they are not grounded in the National Socialist worldview’ : National Socialism and the Politicisation of the Luftwaffe.

She completed her PhD at the University of Hull in August 2022. In recognition of this PhD research, she was awarded the 2020 Royal Air Force Museum Doctoral Academic Prize in 2021. She also completed her Masters in Historical Research (MRes) on Britain’s wartime and post-war mythologization of Operation CHASTISE – better known as the ‘Dambusters raid’ – at Hull, for which she was awarded the Royal Air Force Museum’s RAF Centenary Master’s Academic Prize in 2019.

Victoria has published articles and book chapters with the Journal of Transport History; the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Journal of Aeronautical History; the RAF’s Oranges & Lemons publication; and Cambridge University Press. She formerly lectured in the Department of History at the University of Hull, being nominated for a ‘Rising Star’ award, and earning Associate Fellowship of Advance HE. In 2023, she joined the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London and taught historical & contemporary airpower to junior RAF officers at the Defence Academy (Shrivenham).

Her debut book, Eagle Days, will be published by Head of Zeus.

Mainstream Publications

Victoria is a passionate advocate of making academic research as accessible and relatable as possible - striving to combine rigorous standards of historical research with a narrative flair. She has seen her research published in various mainstream publications including BBC History Extra, Britain at War, and Iron Cross Magazine, covering everything from the Nazis’ infamous mismanagement of the Luftwaffe, to the unique place of Operation CHASTISE in British hearts and minds.

  • V. Taylor, ‘The Star of Africa: Hans-Joachim Marseille’, main feature article for History of War Magazine (August 2023)

  • V. Taylor, ‘A Clean Luftwaffe?’, Iron Cross Magazine (December 2021), 102 - 107

  • V. Taylor, ‘Female Eagles: Women and the Luftwaffe in the Second World War’, Iron Cross Magazine (December 2021), 80 - 85

  • V. Taylor, ‘The Making and Breaking of the Luftwaffe’, ‘Great Battles of World War Two’, BBC History Extra Magazine (October 2020)

  • V. Taylor, ‘Fledglings of the Third Reich: The National Socialist Flyers Corps’, Guest Post for Defence-In-Depth, King’s College London (July 2019)

  • V. Taylor, ‘Operation Chastise and British Folklore’, Britain at War Magazine (April 2018), 62 – 66

  • V. Taylor, ‘Blitzmädels an die Front: A Lesser Known Female War Film’, Women’s History Network (December 2018) https://womenshistorynetwork.org/blitzmadels-an-die-front-a-lesser-known-female-war-film/ [Blog Post]