Description
Book SynopsisNo single human invention has changed the nature of war more that the development of the aeroplane. The History of Air Warfare is a highly illustrated and accessible account of the development of aerial warfare, from the first skirmishes over the Western Front in World War I to today’s hi-tech netcentric aerial battlespace.
Developing from unpowered observation hot air balloons in the 18th century and even the older kite, aerial warfare has become a multibillion-dollar industry and has led to many advances in technology and techniques such as aerodynamics, propulsion, radar and use of composites and engineered materials such as carbon fibre.
Featuring more than 120 complex computer-generated battle maps and graphics, the History of Air Warfare explores every major air battle to have taken place in the world’s skies, as well as documenting the air element of campaigns such as Operation Barbarossa and Operation Desert Storm. Extensively researched text tells the history and the stories behind these battles concisely and clearly.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Early Air Forces: 1914–18
Airships: 1914–18
Fighters: 1914–18
Bombers: 1914–18
Aircraft on the Western Front
Aircraft Losses: 1918
Upheaval in Europe: 1920
The Inter-War Years
Empire of the Air
Birth of the Luftwaffe
Spanish Civil War: 1936–39
Japanese War in China: 1937–41
Clippers: Long-Range Transport: 1934–39
European Air Forces
Blitzkrieg: Poland 1939
Scandinavia: Finland 1939–40
Scandinavia: Denmark and Norway 1940
Invasion of the West: 1940
The Battle of Britain: July–September 1940
Bombing: Britain and Germany: 1940–41
Maritime Air Patrol: 1940–41
The Mediterranean: 1940–42
The Balkans: The Fall of Crete
Barbarossa: June 1941
Pearl Harbor: December 1941
Fall of Southeast Asia: 1942
The Battle of the Coral Sea: 1942
The Battle of Midway:1942
The Caucasus and Southern Russia: 1942
Stalingrad: 1942–43
Guadalcanal: 1943
Operation Cartwheel
Bombing Germany: 1942–44
Attacks on Berlin: 1944
North Africa and the Mediterranean: 1942–43
Sicily and Southern Italy
The Eastern Front: March 1943
Ukraine and The Crimea
Carriers in The Pacific
Battle of the Philippine Sea: June 1944
The Island-Hopping Campaign
Closing the Gap: Patrolling The Atlantic
D-Day: The Assault
D-Day: The Aftermath
Market Garden and Varsity: 1944–45
Southeast-Asia: 1944–45
China: 1941–45
Operation Bagration
Special Operations: 1941–45
The End of the Reich
Bombing the Home Islands: 1945
Nuclear War
Berlin Airlift
Korea: 1950–53
The Cold War: 1950–89
The Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962
South-East Asia: 1959–75
Indochina and Vietnam
Arab-Israeli Wars
Air-to-Air Tactics
The Falklands War: April–June 1982
The Gulf War: 1991
Afghanistan: 2006
Index
