Air forces and warfare Books

Book SynopsisDescribes how American airmen, horrified by World War I's trench warfare, turned to the progressive ideas of efficiency and economy in an effort to reform war itself, with the heavy bomber as their solution to limiting the bloodshed. They were convinced that the airplane, used as a bombing platform, offered the means to make wars less lethal than conflicts waged by armies or navies.Trade Review"A thoughtful and well written account of a central thread in the thinking of American airpower advocates and the way its implementation in two world wars took place at the time, was seen afterwards, and has come to be enormously influential in the decision process of our country's leaders into the twenty-first century."-Gerhard L. Weinberg, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and winner of the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award -- Gerhard L. Weinberg "This is military, intellectual history at its best."-Colonel Gian P. Gentile, Journal of American History -- Colonel Gian P Gentile Journal of American History "A solid and impressive study that will enlighten those interested in the formation of bombing theory (Douhet through Warden) and especially its practice in World War II."-Kenneth P. Werrell, Air Power History -- Kenneth P. Werrell Air Power History "Beneficial Bombing views a somewhat familiar tale through a fresh interpretive lens, complementing other works examining air power's morality and effectiveness... Based almost entirely on new research in a wide array of primary sources, it illuminates the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings of America's air power."-Richard R. Muller, Journal of Military History -- Richard R. Muller Journal of Military HistoryTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsSource AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Genesis in the Great War2. Progressive Prophecy3. From Prophecy to Plan4. Breaching Fortress Europe, 1942-435. Bludgeoning with Bombs: Germany, 1944-456. Fire from the Sky: Japan, 1944-457. Progressive LegaciesNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisNavy Records Society Publications, Vol 165Table of ContentsCONTENTS P age Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Glossary of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii General Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii Part I: 1942: Climax in the Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part II: 1943: The Escort Carrier Comes of Age . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Sources and Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

Read more less

Book SynopsisA memoir that recalls flying multiple patrols over enemy-held territory in his light unarmored plane, calling and coordinating artillery strikes. It is suitable for military historians as well as general readers.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe unprecedented fire raid that incinerated Tokyo, helped win the war and marked a major shift in American military policyTrade Review"Black Snow brilliantly vivifies the horrific reality of the most destructive air attack in history, against Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945. James Scott deftly employs sharply etched portraits of individuals of all stations and nationalities to survey the global, technological, and moral backdrop of the cataclysm, including the searing experiences of Japanese trapped in a gigantic firestorm. This riveting account illuminates an historical moment of profound contemporary relevance." -- Richard B. Frank, author of Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942"The firebombing of Japan is one of the most gut-wrenching and controversial chapters in modern history. James M. Scott’s Black Snow is a brilliant, fast moving, utterly absorbing, and devastating account of the full price of victory in the Pacific." -- Alex Kershaw, New York Times best-selling author of Against All Odds"James M. Scott brings to life with painstaking detail and humanity the terror and plight and hopes of Japanese citizens in their cities, and US pilots in the air—their duties, their misgivings, their conflicted reactions, their sense of victory, and their moral survival off that victory. You realize you’ve never read this story before in this way, with these long views of history and such collar-grabbing intensity. Black Snow raises profound questions about how peace is made during one of America’s most turbulent periods on the world stage, and it speaks clearly to us today. You won’t put it down." -- Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times best-selling author of In Harm's Way and Horse Soldiers

Read more less

Book SynopsisMacKenzie demonstrates that ICAO has assumed a leading role in the struggle to secure civil aviation against sabotage and hijacking, while providing a forum for international concerns and disputes.Table of ContentsPart One The Puritan and the Past Chicago: The Ambitious Dream PICAO: 'An International Conference Always at Work The First Assembly Remembering the Forgotten Man': ICAO's Quest for Multilateralism Part Two Headquarter Headaches Growing Pains Maintaining Standards Problem Solving in ICAO: The Unfinished Symphony The Cold War Comes to ICAO Part Three Closer to the Heart than the Purse': ICAO and the Problem of Security Evolution not Revolution: ICAO in a Changing World The Cold War Comes to ICAO - Again The Politics of Aviation Security Back to the Future: The Return of Multilateralism Part Four From Development to Implementation: ICAO in the Modern World Meeting the 21st Century Appendix 1: The Convention on International Civil Aviation Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom a small militia organization the Canadian air force had grown by 1945 into one of the country's three major autonomous military services. In this second volume of the RCAF's official history, covering the years from 1918 to 1945. W.A.B. Douglas chronicles the force's rapid growth and provides a vivid portrait of the Battle of the Atlantic as it was fought from the eastern shoes of Canada. Military necessity had brought Canada into the air age. In the peaceful 1920s, civil more than military concerns governed the shape, size, and functions of the RCAF; in the following decade the rise of international tensions forced the service to concentrate on its military role. During the Second World War the RCAF grew from a few hundred airmen to a force of some eighty squadrons and nearly a quarter of a million people: RCAF squadrons, wings, and groups took their place beside other Allied air forces in many theatres of the Second World War, and in the process acquired capabilities i

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIn To Kill Nations Edward Kaplan describesa long process of evolution and adaptation as U.S. political and military leaders grappled with integrating nuclear weapons into national defense after World War II. Strikingly, he sees not a sudden revolution but a gradual process of incremental changes in military preparedness policy and action. * Journal of American History *There are many other studies of weapons development and Eisenhower and Kennedy's approaches to national defense. The great strength of Kaplan's is his tracing of the evolution of US policy in response to perceived Soviet capabilities. He astutely demonstrates how the Berlin and Cuban missile crises exposed the drawbacks of preparing primarily for an atomic war with the Soviet Union.To Kill Nations will enlighten readers seeking an intelligent overview of the evolution of airpower strategy in the first twenty-five years of the Cold War as well as, more specifically, President Eisenhower's New Look security policy and Robert McNamara's influence on national security strategy during the Kennedy administration. * Michigan War Studies Review *Kaplan draws extensively on archival records, including declassified government documents, to tell the story of how US nuclear strategy went from being focused on winning nuclear war with the Soviet Union to being more in line with the [mutually assured destruction] thinking made famous by early nuclear deterrence scholars, such as Thomas Schelling.... The book is a well-researched, interesting history of SAC and SAC's influence on US national security strategy during the first twenty years of the Cold War. * H-NET Reviews *Edward Kaplan's To Kill Nations is a fascinating work that packs a thermonuclear punch of ideas and arguments into 223 pages of dense but readable text (260 including endnotes, etc.). The work is suitable for anyone from advanced undergraduates to experts in the field. * Strategy Bridge *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Antecedents 2. Declaration, Action, and the Air-Atomic Strategy 3. Finding a Place 4. The Fantastic Compression of Time 5. To Kill a Nation 6. Stalemate, Finite Deterrence, Polaris, and SIOP-62 7. New Sheriff in Town 8. End of an Era Conclusion Key to Sources and Abbreviations Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Vanishing Point, award winning journalist and author Tom Wilber pieces together the largely forgotten story of the bomber, Getaway Gertie, and an eclectic group of enthusiasts who have spent years searching for it. At the height of World War II, a B-24 Liberator bomber vanished with its crew while on a training mission over upstate New York. The final hours and ultimate resting place of pilot Keith Ponder and seven other US aviators aboard the plane remain mysteries to this day. The tale is at once a compelling instance of loss on the World War II American home front and a more extensive, largely unreported history. Pondera 21-year-old from rural Mississippiand his crew were tragically unexceptional casualties in the monumental effort to recruit and train an air force en masse to counter the global conquest of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. More than fifteen thousand American airmen and, in some cases, women burned, crasheTrade ReviewSmoothly written and painstakingly researched, this is a fitting tribute to unsung heroes of the Greatest Generation. * Publisher's Weekly *Vanishing Point unspools what happened—or might have happened—to Ponder's ill-fated flight. It's the story of the story, the people behind the story, and the keepers of the story who maintain a vigil of exploration nearly 80 years later. * USA Today *Tom Wilber, author of Vanishing Point which documents the case of the "Getaway Gertie" crew, said that few people today are aware of the stunning casualty rate of training exercises. Thousands perished while preparing to fight in the second World War. * Choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisConsiders how people have confronted, challenged, and resisted remote warfare Drone warfare is now a routine, if not predominant, aspect of military engagement. Although this method of delivering violence at a distance has been a part of military arsenals for two decades, scholarly debate on remote warfare writ large has remained stuck in tired debates about practicality, efficacy, and ethics. Remote Warfare broadens the conversation, interrogating the cultural and political dimensions of distant warfare and examining how various stakeholders have responded to the reality of state-sponsored remote violence.The essays here represent a panoply of viewpoints, revealing overlooked histories of remoteness, novel methodologies, and new intellectual challenges. From the story arc of Homeland to redefining the idea of a “warrior,” these thirteen pieces consider the new nature of surveillance, similarities between killing with drones and gaming, literature written by veterans, and much more. Timely and provocative, Remote Warfare makes significant and lasting contributions to our understanding of drones and the cultural forces that shape and sustain them.Contributors: Syed Irfan Ashraf, U of Peshawar, Pakistan; Jens Borrebye Bjering, U of Southern Denmark; Annika Brunck, U of Tübingen; David A. Buchanan, U.S. Air Force Academy; Owen Coggins, Open U; Andreas Immanuel Graae, U of Southern Denmark; Brittany Hirth, Dickinson State U; Tim Jelfs, U of Groningen; Ann-Katrine S. Nielsen, Aarhus U; Nike Nivar Ortiz, U of Southern California; Michael Richardson, U of New South Wales; Kristin Shamas, U of Oklahoma; Sajdeep Soomal; Michael Zeitlin, U of British Columbia. Trade Review"An excellent resource for researchers intent on forming a better understanding of the methodological challenges that are reflected in researching trauma in complex environments, such as the distant battlefield, and how contemporary modes of approaching this topic have shifted over time."—Security & Dialogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisConsiders how people have confronted, challenged, and resisted remote warfare Drone warfare is now a routine, if not predominant, aspect of military engagement. Although this method of delivering violence at a distance has been a part of military arsenals for two decades, scholarly debate on remote warfare writ large has remained stuck in tired debates about practicality, efficacy, and ethics. Remote Warfare broadens the conversation, interrogating the cultural and political dimensions of distant warfare and examining how various stakeholders have responded to the reality of state-sponsored remote violence.The essays here represent a panoply of viewpoints, revealing overlooked histories of remoteness, novel methodologies, and new intellectual challenges. From the story arc of Homeland to redefining the idea of a “warrior,” these thirteen pieces consider the new nature of surveillance, similarities between killing with drones and gaming, literature written by veterans, and much more. Timely and provocative, Remote Warfare makes significant and lasting contributions to our understanding of drones and the cultural forces that shape and sustain them.Contributors: Syed Irfan Ashraf, U of Peshawar, Pakistan; Jens Borrebye Bjering, U of Southern Denmark; Annika Brunck, U of Tübingen; David A. Buchanan, U.S. Air Force Academy; Owen Coggins, Open U; Andreas Immanuel Graae, U of Southern Denmark; Brittany Hirth, Dickinson State U; Tim Jelfs, U of Groningen; Ann-Katrine S. Nielsen, Aarhus U; Nike Nivar Ortiz, U of Southern California; Michael Richardson, U of New South Wales; Kristin Shamas, U of Oklahoma; Sajdeep Soomal; Michael Zeitlin, U of British Columbia. Trade Review"An excellent resource for researchers intent on forming a better understanding of the methodological challenges that are reflected in researching trauma in complex environments, such as the distant battlefield, and how contemporary modes of approaching this topic have shifted over time."—Security & Dialogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisSheds new light on the mistreatment of downed airmen during World War II and the overall relationship between the air war and state-sponsored violence. Throughout the vast expanse of the Pacific, the remoteness of Southeast Asia, and the rural and urban communities in Nazi-occupied Europe, more than 120,000 American airmen were shot down over enemy territory during World War II, thousands of whom were mistreated and executed. The perpetrators were not just solely fanatical soldiers or Nazi zealots but also ordinary civilians triggered by the death and devastation inflicted by the war. In Forgotten Casualties, author Kevin T Hall examines Axis violence inflicted on downed Allied airmen during this global war. Compared with all other armed conflicts, World War II exhibited the most widespread and ruthless violence committed against airmen. Flyers were deemed guilty because of their association with the Allied air forces, and their fate remained in the hands of their often-hostile captors. Axis citizens angered by the devastation inflicted by the war, along with the regimes’ consent and often encouragement of citizens to take matters into their own hands, resulted in thousands of Allied flyers’ being mistreated and executed by enraged civilians. Written to help advance the relatively limited discourse on the mistreatment against flyers in World War II, Forgotten Casualties is the first book to analyze the Axis violence committed against Allied airmen in a comparative, international perspective. Effectively comparing and contrasting the treatment of POWs in Germany with that of their counterparts in Japan, Hall’s thorough analysis of rarely seen primary and secondary sources sheds new light on the largely overlooked complex relationship among the air war, propaganda, the role of civilians, and state-sponsored terror during the radicalized conflict. Sources include postwar trial testimonies, Missing Air Crew Reports (MACR), Escape and Evasion reports, perpetrators’ explanations and rationalizations for their actions, extensive judicial sources, transcripts of court proceedings, autopsy reports, appeals for clemency, and justifications for verdicts. Drawing heavily on airmen’s personal accounts and the testimonies of both witnesses and perpetrators from the postwar crimes trials, Forgotten Casualties offers a new narrative of this largely overlooked aspect of Axis violence.Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations | ix Introduction | 1 1. Axis Policies to Combat Downed Enemy Flyers | 29 2. War Crimes Narratives: Pacific and Southeast Asia | 63 3. War Crimes Narratives: Europe | 104 4. US Postwar Flyer Trials | 129 Conclusion | 143 Appendix: Index of Analyzed US Flyer Trials Held in the Pacific and Southeast Asia | 151 Acknowledgments | 243 Notes | 245 Bibliography | 271 Index | 303

Read more less

Book SynopsisSheds new light on the mistreatment of downed airmen during World War II and the overall relationship between the air war and state-sponsored violence. Throughout the vast expanse of the Pacific, the remoteness of Southeast Asia, and the rural and urban communities in Nazi-occupied Europe, more than 120,000 American airmen were shot down over enemy territory during World War II, thousands of whom were mistreated and executed. The perpetrators were not just solely fanatical soldiers or Nazi zealots but also ordinary civilians triggered by the death and devastation inflicted by the war. In Forgotten Casualties, author Kevin T Hall examines Axis violence inflicted on downed Allied airmen during this global war. Compared with all other armed conflicts, World War II exhibited the most widespread and ruthless violence committed against airmen. Flyers were deemed guilty because of their association with the Allied air forces, and their fate remained in the hands of their often-hostile captors. Axis citizens angered by the devastation inflicted by the war, along with the regimes’ consent and often encouragement of citizens to take matters into their own hands, resulted in thousands of Allied flyers’ being mistreated and executed by enraged civilians. Written to help advance the relatively limited discourse on the mistreatment against flyers in World War II, Forgotten Casualties is the first book to analyze the Axis violence committed against Allied airmen in a comparative, international perspective. Effectively comparing and contrasting the treatment of POWs in Germany with that of their counterparts in Japan, Hall’s thorough analysis of rarely seen primary and secondary sources sheds new light on the largely overlooked complex relationship among the air war, propaganda, the role of civilians, and state-sponsored terror during the radicalized conflict. Sources include postwar trial testimonies, Missing Air Crew Reports (MACR), Escape and Evasion reports, perpetrators’ explanations and rationalizations for their actions, extensive judicial sources, transcripts of court proceedings, autopsy reports, appeals for clemency, and justifications for verdicts. Drawing heavily on airmen’s personal accounts and the testimonies of both witnesses and perpetrators from the postwar crimes trials, Forgotten Casualties offers a new narrative of this largely overlooked aspect of Axis violence.Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations | ix Introduction | 1 1. Axis Policies to Combat Downed Enemy Flyers | 29 2. War Crimes Narratives: Pacific and Southeast Asia | 63 3. War Crimes Narratives: Europe | 104 4. US Postwar Flyer Trials | 129 Conclusion | 143 Appendix: Index of Analyzed US Flyer Trials Held in the Pacific and Southeast Asia | 151 Acknowledgments | 243 Notes | 245 Bibliography | 271 Index | 303

Read more less

Book SynopsisClarence “Cap” Cornish was an Indiana pilot whose life spanned all but five years of the Century of Flight. Born in Canada in 1898, Cornish grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He began flying at the age of nineteen, piloting a “Jenny” aircraft during World War I, and continued to fly for the next seventy-eight years. In 1995, at the age of ninety-seven, he was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest actively flying pilot. The mid-1920s to the mid-1950s were Cornish’s most active years in aviation. During that period, sod runways gave way to asphalt and concrete; navigation evolved from the iron rail compass to radar; runways that once had been outlined at night with cans of oil topped off with flaming gasoline now shimmered with multicolored electric lights; instead of being crammed next to mailbags in open-air cockpits, passengers sat comfortably in streamlined, pressurised cabins. In the early phase of that era, Cornish performed aerobatics and won air races. He went on to run a full-service flying business, served as chief pilot for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, managed the city’s municipal airport, helped monitor and maintain safe skies above the continental United States during World War II, and directed Indiana’s first Aeronautics Commission.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBritish Imperial Air Power examines the air defense of Australia and New Zealand during the interwar period. It also demonstrates the difficulty of applying new military aviation technology to the defense of the global Empire and provides insight into the nature of the political relationship between the Pacific Dominions and Britain. Following World War I, both Dominions sought greater independence in defense and foreign policy. Public aversion to military matters and the economic dislocation resulting from the war and later the Depression left little money that could be provided for their respective air forces. As a result, the Empire's air services spent the entire interwar period attempting to create a strategy in the face of these handicaps. In order to survive, the British Empire's military air forces offered themselves as a practical and economical third option in the defense of Britain's global Empire, intending to replace the Royal Navy and British Army as the traditional pillars of imperial defense.Table of Contents INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: The First Imperial Air Defense Schemes, 1918–1919 CHAPTER 2: The Formation of the Royal Australian Air Force and the First Reassessments of Pacific Defenses, 1920–1921 CHAPTER 3: The Empire's Air Defense: The Geddes Cuts of 1922, and the 1923 Imperial Conference and Their Influence on the Empire's Air Defense, 1922–1923 CHAPTER 4: The Royal Air Force and Postwar Air Transport Defense Planning and the Airmail Scheme, 1919–1939 CHAPTER 5: Airships and the Empire: Defense, Schemes, and Disaster, 1919–1930 CHAPTER 6: Air Defense and the Labour Party: Singapore Naval Base and the 1926 Imperial Conference, 1924–1926 CHAPTER 7: Imperial Air Mobility, the Salmond Report, and Air Marshal Trenchard's Last Salvo, 1927–1929 CHAPTER 8: Depression and Disarmament, 1929–1933 CHAPTER 9: The International Crises and Imperial Rearmament, 1934–1936 CHAPTER 10: The Final Preparations, 1937–1940 EPILOGUE Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is the first history of the U.S. Army Air Corps unit that incorporated Gen. Claire Chennault's famous "Flying Tigers." During the dark days immediately after Pearl Harbor, most news from the Asian front was bad—with the exception of reports about the Flying Tigers and their successors, the 23rd Fighter Group. Day after day in the deadly skies over China, the 23rd's shark-mouthed P-40s outfought the Japanese. No single American fighter group in World War II performed more varied missions, was more successful, or was more central to the war effort in its theater of operations. By the end of the war, the 23rd had tallied nearly six hundred aerial victories and destroyed nearly four hundred more Japanese aircraft on the ground. Carl Molesworth's Sharks Over China is based on his interviews with the group's survivors and contains numerous rare photographs. Trade Review"Drawing on interviews, diaries, letters, and unit histories, Molesworth has stitched together a chronicle of a gutsy, resourceful outfit whose tasks included escorting bombers, bombing bridges, strafing troop trains and raiding enemy airfields. Absorbing reading for WWII aerial-combat buffs."—Publishers Weekly"[A] meticulous chronicle of . . . the closest thing to a guerrilla air force the world has ever seen."—Air & Space

Read more less

Book SynopsisSince the Wright brothers made their famous flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, aviation has emerged as the indispensable arm of American military power. In this detailed history, Charles J. Gross traces its development from the Wright brothers' triumph over gravity through the air war for Kosovo. Drawing on examples from all periods and all service branches, he explains the roles of politics, economics, and technology in shaping air power in the US armed forces and assesses the impact of military aviation on warfare. Gross discusses major developments in aircraft, doctrine, training, and operations. He also provides discussions of airlift, in-flight refueling, military budgets, industry, and interservice squabbling. He examines Eisenhower's ""New Look"" and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction); McNamara's effort to use ""commonality"" of equipment to cut costs; Kennedy's buildup of the military; the Nixon Doctrine and the failure of air power to resolve the long drawn-out conflict in Southeast Asia; and the growing reliance on American air power in the post-Cold War world. This illustrated volume offers a broad history of American military aviation. Military professionals, scholars, policy makers, and the general public should find this book an invaluable guide to the ""indispensable arm.Table of ContentsBrigades of Flying Horses; A Golden Age of Innovation; Armageddon; An Age of Limits; Cold Warriors; The Renaissance of American Military Power; The Empire Strikes Out.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOnce an obscure piece of World War II history, the Tuskegee Airmen are now among the most celebrated and documented aviators in military history. With this growth in popularity, however, have come a number of inaccurate stories and assumptions. Misconceptions about the Tuskegee Airmen refutes fifty-five of these myths, correcting the historical record while preserving the Airmen’s rightful reputation as excellent servicemen. The myths examined include: the Tuskegee Airmen never losing a bomber to an enemy aircraft; that Lee Archer was an ace; that Roscoe Brown was the first American pilot to shoot down a German jet; that Charles McGee has the highest total combat missions flown; and that Daniel “Chappie” James was the leader of the “Freeman Field Mutiny.” Historian Daniel Haulman, an expert on the Airmen with many published books on the subject, conclusively disproves these misconceptions through primary documents like monthly histories, daily narrative mission reports, honor-awarding orders, and reports on missing crews, thereby proving that the Airmen were without equal, even without embellishments to their story.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat influences have shaped air power since human flight became a reality more than a hundred years ago? Global Air Power provides insight into the evolution of air power theory and practice by examining the experience of six of the world's largest air forcesthose of the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel, Russia, India, and Chinaand ...

Read more less

Book SynopsisGlobal air mobility is an American invention. During the twentieth century, other nations developed capabilities to transport supplies and personnel by air to support deployed military forces.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAir Commanders combines short military biographies and operational analyses to reveal how the personalities, attitudes, and life experiences of twelve outstanding U.S. airmen shaped the central air campaigns in American history. From Gen. Carl Tooey Spaatz, who began his career in World War I, to the contemporary Gen. T.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThomas E. Alexander was among 20,000 military service personnel ordered into the Strategic Air Command, formed in 1946 as US military and political leaders began to understand the growing nuclear threat posed by Stalin's USSR. Alexander served for a number of years in this elite force, designed as a primary deterrent to Soviet military ambitions.In this gripping memoir, Alexander describes what it was like to occupy a 'mole hole' beside a SAC runway, ready to go from full sleep to taxiing for takeoff within seven minutes of the sounding of the klaxon. He shares the experience of sitting on the couch with his family and watching President Kennedy's announcement of the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba, realizing that within hours he would be airborne. He tells what it was like to be at a New Year's Eve party on the base, only to hear the announcement that his unit had just been activated. Less than twenty-four hours later, he was in Greenland.In SAC Time: Navigating the Strategic Air Command, Alexander presents 'an honest and reflective account of the impact the Cold War had on individuals who were then on the front lines of defense - like it or not.' Coauthor Dan Utley says of Alexander's narrative, 'The story of an ordinary individual in extraordinary times has value. . . . These are stories Tom Alexander has waited much of his life to share with others, but they are as rich as the day they occurred.'

Read more less

Book SynopsisMinuteman: A Technical History of the Missile That Defined American Nuclear Warfare is a detailed history of the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile program, which has served as a powerful component of US nuclear strategies for over half a century. David K. Stumpf examines breakthroughs in solid propellant, lightweight inertial guidance systems and lightweight reentry vehicle development, the construction of over a thousand launch and launch control facilities, and key flight test and operational flight programs, and places the Minuteman program in context with world events.Trade Review“Minuteman is an exceptionally important contribution to the historiography of air power and the strategic triad . . . a most valuable study and a good story, well told." —Roger D. Launius, author of Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race"An important addition to the literature on the history of US strategic missiles, Minuteman will be of interest to libraries, educational institutions, engineers, and historians interested in missiles, nuclear weapons, and the Cold War." —Christopher John Gainor, author of The Bomb and America’s Missile Age"The Minuteman was one of the most important weapons of the nuclear age, and the subject of countless arguments and debates in the White House, the Pentagon, and Congress during the Cold War. David K. Stumpf's comprehensive and engaging history explores all aspects of this weapons system, from its creation and testing to deployment to its partial elimination during arms-control discussions. Even today, buried throughout the American Midwest, hundreds of Minuteman missiles with horrible destructive power sit at the ready, hopefully to never be used." —Dwayne Day, policy analyst and space historian"From the scientific research that made possible the engineering and development of the Minuteman, to the challenging construction of operational facilities across the central United States, David K. Stumpf narrates this technical history with masterful precision. Every turned page reveals long-neglected or surprisingly new details from now-obscure sources." —Rick W. Sturdevant, deputy director of history, United States Space Force"Minuteman is a timely and valuable contribution in view of the ongoing deliberations on a decades-long upgrading of Minuteman III." —Leonard H. Caveny, former director of science and technology, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization"Minuteman is the first comprehensive account of this vitally important strategic missile. All individuals interested in the details of the complex Minuteman development, deployment, and testing history will want to purchase this book. Even those who are extremely knowledgeable about Minuteman can learn a great deal from David K. Stumpf’s account." —J. D. Hunley, author of The Development of Propulsion Technology for US Space-Launch Vehicles, 1926—1991

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Air War in Vietnam is a deep dive into the effectiveness of air power during the Vietnam War, offering particular evaluation of the extent to which air operations fulfilled national policy objectives. Built from exhaustive research into previously classified and little-known archival sources, Michael Weaver insightfully blends new sources with material from the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States Series. While Air Force sources from the lion's share of the documentary evidence, Weaver also makes heavy use of Navy and Marine materials.Breaking air power into six different mission sets--air superiority, aerial refueling, airlift, close air support, reconnaissance, and coercion & interdiction--Weaver assesses the effectiveness of each of these endeavors from the tactical level of war and adherence to US policy goals. Critically, The Air War in Vietnam perceives of the air campaign as a siege of North Vietnam.While American air forces completed most of their air campaigns successfully on the tactical, operational, and strategic levels, what resulted was not a failure in air power, but a failure in the waging of war as a whole. The Air War in Vietnam tackles controversies and unearths new evidence, rendering verdicts both critical and positive, arguing that war, however it is waged, is ultimately effective only when it achieves a country's policy objectives.Trade ReviewMichael E. Weaver offers a detailed, comprehensive and meticulous re-examination of air power effectiveness during the Vietnam War. His fresh approach, shrewd analysis, and insightful research, including newly declassified evidence, demystifies air power's contribution to statecraft in a war that defied traditional metrics for measuring success and failure. This book is a work of significance and highly recommended." —Colonel John Andreas Olsen, author of A History of Air Warfare

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe author of the bestselling Darwin Spitfires casts a forensic eye over the role that Allied air forces played – or failed to play – in crucial World War II campaigns in New Guinea.This is the story of the early battles of the South West Pacific theatre – the Coral Sea, Kokoda, Milne Bay, Guadalcanal – presented as a single air campaign that began with the Japanese conquest of Rabaul in January 1942.It is a story of both Australian and American airmen who flew and fought in the face of adversity – with incomplete training, inadequate aircraft, and from poorly set up and exposed airfields. And they persisted despite extreme exhaustion, sickness, poor morale and the near certainty of being murdered by their Japanese captors if they went down in enemy territory.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Israel Air Force (IAF) has accumulated as much battle experience as any air force in the world during the post-Second World War era, and it has recorded many outstanding accomplishments throughout a seemingly endless string of interstate wars, asymmetrical wars, counterinsurgency campaigns, and special operations. This book examines the IAF's experience in the ArabIsraeli conflict from the establishment of Israel in 1948 to the present day. It analyses this experience through the prisms of manoeuvre warfare, attrition warfare, counterinsurgency warfare, special operations, and humanitarian operations. The book reviews the IAF's performance in such wars as the 1967 Six-Day War, the 196970 War of Attrition, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and the 20089 Gaza War. The book also scrutinizes the IAF's participation in major counterinsurgency campaigns and special operations, traces the air force's experience with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which have occupied a very prominent place in air operations since the 1982 Lebanon War, and chronicles its experience with anti-aircraft defences and satellites. Up-to-date information on the IAF's bases, squadrons, and other infrastructure is provided as well. The book is based on personal visits to the IAF over the past few years, during which the author had the opportunity to tour bases, listen to lectures and briefings, and speak with numerous retired, reserve, and active duty officers.Trade ReviewA close reading will prove rewarding in terms of understanding the prowess and strategic doctrine of the IAF. Clearly, anyone who has an interest in the IAF and its activities will find Sword and Shield worthwhile. -- United States Air Force Research Institute (AFRI)

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Israel Air Force (IAF) has accumulated as much battle experience as any air force in the world during the post-Second World War era, and it has recorded many outstanding accomplishments throughout a seemingly endless string of interstate wars, asymmetrical wars, counterinsurgency campaigns, and special operations. This book examines the IAF's experience in the ArabIsraeli conflict from the establishment of Israel in 1948 to the present day. It analyses this experience through the prisms of manoeuvre warfare, attrition warfare, counterinsurgency warfare, special operations, and humanitarian operations. The book reviews the IAF's performance in such wars as the 1967 Six-Day War, the 196970 War of Attrition, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and the 20089 Gaza War. The book also scrutinizes the IAF's participation in major counterinsurgency campaigns and special operations, traces the air force's experience with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which have occupied a very prominent place in air operations since the 1982 Lebanon War, and chronicles its experience with anti-aircraft defences and satellites. Up-to-date information on the IAF's bases, squadrons, and other infrastructure is provided as well. The book is based on personal visits to the IAF over the past few years, during which the author had the opportunity to tour bases, listen to lectures and briefings, and speak with numerous retired, reserve, and active duty officers.Trade ReviewA close reading will prove rewarding in terms of understanding the prowess and strategic doctrine of the IAF. Clearly, anyone who has an interest in the IAF and its activities will find Sword and Shield worthwhile. -- United States Air Force Research Institute (AFRI)

Read more less

Book SynopsisOperation Diver is the story of a battle: its action, people, landscapes, and remains. The battle was Anti-Aircraft Command’s attempt to defeat the V1 flying-bomb, the first of Nazi Germany’s `retribution’ weapons, whose attacks dominated the home front in the final year of the Second World War. Beginning in the week of D-Day, the flying bomb battle lasted for nine months. In that time the men and women of AA Command became a massed, mobile army, shifting a vast carpet of guns to meet the V1’s changing lines of attack. Beginning in Kent and Sussex, their journey took in the Thames Estuary, East Anglia and eventually the Yorkshire coast. Along with the RAF’s fighter aircraft and the larger air defence system, their mission was to prevent a single flying bomb from reaching London, or any other British city. The battle was won; but not before many technical and human obstacles were overcome. Published to mark the 75th anniversary of the flying bomb campaign, Operation Diver is also an essay in landscape history, and shows for the first time in detail how hundreds of guns and thousands of gunners were deployed across the fields and farms of Britain, from the south-east to Flamborough Head. Published with a full gazetteer of gunsite positions, it also documents Historic England’s work in assessing the survival of Operation Diver’s fragmentary remains. Table of ContentsPart I: On the Horizon 1. Signs and signals 2. Cherry Stone 3. Squaring up 4. Crossbow 5. Overlord Part II: Eighty Days 6. `A complete and sudden dive’ 7. Orchard fields 8. Realities 9. Diver shuffle 10. Light blue world 11. Conflicts 12. Decisions 13. Clear horizons 14. Getting to grips 15. Beside the sea 16. `Only one goal’ 17. End of term Part III: Diver East 18. Night Heinkels 19. `Not without toil’ 20. Winter 21. Diver north Part IV: Afterwards 22. `The brightening years ahead’ 23. No abiding city

Read more less

Book SynopsisUnlike land and maritime military warfare, which has evolved over thousands of years, the history of war in the air is as short as it has been spectacular: only 100 years have passed since the first flight in a powered aircraft. Despite its brief history, however, military air power is not an insignificant part of the modern military machine: on the contrary, it has played a strikingly prominent role in recent conflicts and humanitarian relief operations, and is likely to take the leading position in many future ones. In the decades since World War II, the skies, and increasingly space, have acquired ever more importance as the ultimate 'high ground'. In "Sky Wars", David Gates examines the history of military aerospace power, discussing technical developments between both World Wars and the use of air power in specific wars in the latter part of the twentieth century, including the recent conflict with Iraq. At the same time he analyses the military and civil applications of airpower in the contemporary world, some of which have led to scientific and technical advances of great benefit to humanity. As well as looking at the ways in which developments in air power, military prowess and space exploration have had a major impact on our daily lives, he highlights more contentious issues, for example the so-called 'CNN factor', whereby the increasing capacity for journalistic intrusion into ongoing military operations compels armed forces to be much more sensitive to public opinion.Trade Review'Sky Wars provides an ideal review of the first 100 years of military aerospace power, giving the enthusiast a fuller understanding of the philosophy behind today's major air forces.' - Aeroplane 'The author has skillfully interwoven the history with his own thoughts on the subject and comes up with fascinating theories on how events could have had different outcomes if other avenues had been explored.' - Aviation News 'In this brief centennial overview, Gates juxtaposes air power's technological sophistication with the often inappropriate political and military strategies that have governed its use. Figuring prominently are treatments of strategic bombing theory from Douhet to LeMay, the strategic failure of Hitler's V weapons, Vietnam era technocentric myopia, and observations on military technology's globalizing cultural influences. Less typical of one-volume aviation histories is the cataloging of a first-rate air arm's weaknesses and the unsupportable political expense they can incur ... Recommended.' - Choice

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less