Search results for ""Author John Sweetman""
Hachette Books Ireland Identity
''A FASCINATING READ'' DR MARIE CASSIDYA PAGE-TURNING DETECTIVE MEMOIR WHICH REVEALS THE FORENSIC METHODS THAT HELPED SOLVE PROMINENT IRISH CRIMES.When a violent incident led young misfit garda John Sweetman into the Garda Technical Bureau with incriminating evidence, he found his true calling.He spent the next 25 years as a detective garda working on the frontline of crime scene investigations - as both a fingerprint expert and, in later years, a forensic handwriting and document expert. His tenacity and natural eye for detail led him to becoming involved in many criminal investigations and high-profile cases.From the brutal murder of Marie Dillon in Finglas in 1998 to the gangland killing of Raymond Salinger in 2003, John was involved in the search for forensic evidence at these and other crime scenes.He later employed his handwriting expertise in examining fraudulence, threatening letters and counterfeit documents, as well as
£15.99
The History Press Ltd Cavalry of the Clouds: Air War over Europe 1914-1918
In 1917, David Lloyd George declared that airmen were 'the cavalry of the clouds … the knighthood of this war …' This romantic image was fostered post-war by writers of adventure stories and the stunts of Hollywood filmmakers, and yet it was far from the harsh reality of life of an airman. From their baptism of fire in 1914 carrying out reconnaissance and experiencing the first dogfights, to the breakthrough in 1918 which claimed heavy casualties, the aerial defenders of Britain were continually tested. In Cavalry of the Clouds John Sweetman describes the development of British air power during the First World War on the Western Front, which culminated in the creation of the first independent air force, the RAF. By making use of the correspondence of airmen and ground staff of all nationalities, he illustrates the impact this new type of conflict had on those involved and their families at home. Extensively researched, Cavalry of the Clouds is an essential reference work for any student of military history.
£14.99
The History Press Ltd Tirpitz: Hunting the Beast
The German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz had brutally short careers. The Bismarck was sunk by the Home Fleet on her first operational sortie in May 1941. But the Tirpitz, hiding in Norwegian fjords, remained a menace to Allied convoys and tied down the British Home Fleet for three years. Periodic scares that the Tirpitz was 'out' disrupted naval operations and in 1942 led to the dispersal and destruction of Convoy PQ17. Many attacks on the Tirpitz were made by British X-craft and Chariots, by the Fleet Air Arm and by RAF Bomber Command. From May 1940 over 700 British aircraft tried to bomb, mine or torpedo the Tirpitz on 33 separate missions; she was finally destroyed by Lancaster bombers with 5-ton Tallboy bombs.This is the most comprehensive account of the air attacks on 'the beast' ever published, which is the result of extensive research of the British and German records by the author, former head of Defence and International Affairs at RMA Sandhurst.
£12.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Sydney Camm: Hurricane and Harrier Designer: Saviour of Britain
This Man Saved Britain' ran a headline in the News Chronicle on 18 February 1941, in a reference to the role of Sydney Camm, designer of the Hawker Hurricane, during the Battle of Britain. Similarly, the Minister of Economic Warfare, Lord Selborne, advised Winston Churchill that to Camm England owed a great deal'. Twenty-five years later, following his death in 1966, obituaries in the Sunday Express and Sunday Times, among other tributes, referred to Hurricane Designer' or Hurricane Maker', implying that this machine represented the pinnacle of Camm's professional achievement. Sir Thomas Sopwith, the respected aircraft designer and Hawker aircraft company founder, believed that Camm deserved much wider recognition, being undoubtedly the greatest designer of fighter aircraft the world has ever known.' Born in 1893, the eldest of twelve children, Camm was raised in a small, terraced house. Despite lacking the advantages of a financially-secure upbringing and formal technical education after leaving school at 14, Camm would go on to become one of the most important people in the story of Britain's aviation history. Sydney Camm's work on the Hurricane was far from the only pinnacle in his remarkable career in aircraft design and engineering - a career that stretched from the biplanes of the 1920s to the jet fighters of the Cold War. Indeed, over fifty years after his death, the revolutionary Hawker Siddeley Harrier in which Camm played such a prominent figure, following a stellar performance in the Falkland Island crisis', still remains in service with the American armed forces. It is perhaps unsurprising therefore, as the author reveals in this detailed biography, that Camm would be knighted in his own country, receive formal honours in France and the United States, and be inducted into the International Hall of Fame in San Diego.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Dambusters - 'Was the Raid Worthwhile?': Barnes Wallis and the Men Behind the Operation in Their Own Words
On the evening of 16 May 1943, nineteen Avro Lancasters took off from RAF Scampton to undertake 617 Squadron's first offensive attack since its formation a few weeks earlier. Loaded with Barnes Wallis' newly designed bouncing bombs, the Bomber Command crews set course for their targets - the vital Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams that served the Ruhr, the Third Reich's industrial heartland. By the time the survivors began landing back at base at 03.11 hours the following morning, eight of the Lancasters had been shot down. However, both the Mohne and Eder dams had been breached, while the Sorpe was damaged. The flood waters that the attacks unleashed poured downstream, wreaking havoc on the surrounding countryside. Albert Speer, Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production, later wrote: That night, employing just a few bombers, the British came close to a success which would have been greater than anything they had achieved hitherto with a commitment of thousands of bombers. In 1990, the renowned historian and author Dr John Sweetman published his seminal work on the events before, during and after Operation Chastise. His book was the result of decades of research into the famous attack, in the course of which Dr Sweetman corresponded with or interviewed many of the individuals involved - from the scientists to senior officers, and from groundcrew to the very airmen who delivered Barnes Wallis' bouncing bombs to the dams. Such was the relationships that developed over the years, Dr Sweetman became a close friend to many of these individuals and their families. Some of the information contained in the interview transcripts and letters he received was included in his original book; much more, however, was never used. This is particularly the case with the many letters and conversations which Dr Sweetman received or had after his book was first published - much of which adds to, or elaborates on, the narrative of the events in May 1943. Dr Sweetman has delved into his remarkable archive of material to present unseen sections of it here, for the historian or general reader, for the very first time.
£22.50
Little, Brown Book Group Bomber Crew: Taking On the Reich
During the Second World War aeronautical technology gathered rapid pace. By 1945, bombers had not only greatly increased in engine power and range, but the bombs which they carried rose from 250lbs to 10 tons; the navigator's pencil and rubber of 1939 had been supplemented by infinitely more sophisticated electronic aids. Yet the success or failure of each and every bomber still depended entirely on the efficiency of every member of the crew at his individual position, the interaction and co-operation of all crew members as a body. One member of 617 squadron graphically explained that 'every time we went out, it was seven men against the Reich'.Drawing on letters, journals and diaries, John Sweetman examines the lives the bomber crews lived, from the highs and lows of their missions to the complexities of their friendships and the impact their place in the war had on the families and loved ones they left behind. Part collective biography, part military history, part social history: this will remain the definitive account of the bomber crews of the Second World War for years to come.
£11.99