Fighter pilots! Images of Baron Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker in the Great War, Johnnie Johnson, Robert Stanford Tuck and Richard Bong in the Second World War, or Robin Olds in Vietnam, all spring to mind. Volumes have been written about them, past and present. Understandably, most of these revolve around the skill, cunning and ......
The infantry is only a few metres ahead of us when suddenly, on the left of our tank, a Russian stands up. The swine had pretended to be dead when our infantry came past him! Thats an old classic, pretending to be dead and then firing from the rear. But that isnt a good idea when facing tank-men like us... floor the accelerator! Turn left and ......
The Type 82 Destroyer HMS Bristol was born in a blaze of glory as lead ship in a proposed class of four - designed to escort a new generation of super carriers for the Royal Navy. The carriers never materialized and neither did the other Type 82s, leaving Bristol literally in a class of her own.
Completed as a trials ship for new ......
Sliding out of the shadows of World War Two, the de Havilland Vampire accompanied by the distinctive whine of its Goblin engine quickly proved itself an effective alternative to piston-powered fighters. After entering operational service with the RAF (as the services first single-engined jet) in 1946, the Vampire sought by air forces the world ......
When the US president, Harry S Truman, declared the Truman Doctrine in March 1947, he could not have known that the resultant Cold War would persist for over 40 years until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. In addition to nuclear and conventional military friction between the Eastern and Western blocs, the struggle for ......
The untold story of the elite force that spearheaded almost every British bombing raid over Nazi Germany by the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Kamikaze Hunters. Perfect for fans off John Nichols Spitfire, Patrick Bishops Fighter Boys and Dambusters Dark low-level raids, dodging anti-aircraft flak to make pinpoint-accurate drops - the ......
The RAFs continuing role in the projection of air power in the defence of the United Kingdom and its overseas interests since the end of the Second World War is well known. However, the same cannot always be said about the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm (FAA), in part due to the ten-year gap between the retirement of the Harrier and the arrival of ......
A comprehensive illustrated history of snipers and their battlefield role in World War II. Thousands of volumes have been published about World War II but relatively little attention has been given to the sniper. Drawing from memoirs, government documents and interviews, Snipers of World War II incorporates eyewitness accounts to weave a ......
This is the story of a tank regiment: the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in the Second World War. Raw and visceral personal recollections from the men themselves recall some of the most dramatic and horrific scenes imaginable - the sheer nerve-wracking tension of serving in highly inflammable Sherman tanks, the sudden impact of German shells, the ......
Within weeks of war being declared, Wolfgang Fischer had volunteered to join the Luftwaffe and spent nearly five of the succeeding six years of hostilities in uniform. During this time, he was given a succession of postings varying from a long-range recce unit; as a decoder in a met office in occupied France; to a bomber squadron; and as a ......
On 27 August 1939, Flugkapitan Erich Warsitz became the first man to fly a jet aircraft, the Heinkel He 178 and in June of the same year he flew the first liquid-fuel rocket aircraft, the Heinkel He 176. His legendary flying skills enabled him to assist the pioneering German aircraft and engine design teams that included Wernher von Braun and ......
Flight Lieutenant David Moore Crook DFCs original Spitfire Pilot ranks among the finest first-hand accounts published during the Second World War, particularly for a Battle of Britain airman. It rightly remains a sought-after classic.
A Spitfire pilot during the epic aerial battles of the summer of 1940, DMC became a ......
Nimrod Boys is a collection of eighteen first-hand accounts of operating the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod an aircraft which served at the forefront of the Cold War. As the first jet-powered maritime aircraft, it could reach critical points for rescues or for operational requirements in rapid time. Its outstanding navigation and electronics systems ......
A myth-busting, page-turning history of the Battle of Britain Summer, 1940- western Europe has been conquered, and Hitler turns his attention to the invasion of England. Fighter is Len Deightons thrilling history of the ensuing Battle of Britain - the aerial combat between the RAF and the Luftwaffe that was fought over the summer of 1940. ......
Robert Verkaik makes a revisionist case for an unsung aircraft, the Boulton Paul Defiant. This two-seat gun-turret fighter is, argues Verkaik, the forgotten fighter of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain; the effectiveness as well as the courage of its crews is overlooked in standard accounts. To advance his case, he notes that a Defiant ......
A useful contribution to an overcrowded field of history by giving deserved attention to the ordinary men and unsung machines that arent usually included in the dramatic narrative. - The TimesA great read and a real eye-opener to anyone who thinks the Battle of Britain is only about Brits and Germans and Messerschmitts and Spitfires. The value ......
The AIF and the Hundred Days Battlefields such as Gallipoli, Fromelles, Pozières, Bullecourt and Passchendaele are burnt into the Australian Great War psyche. Unfortunately the sheer guts, fortitude and sacrifice of the diggers in those battles had often been wasted by poor leadership and planning. From an Australian perspective, such sacrifice ......
The story of Frank Whittle - RAF pilot, mathematician of genius, inventor of the jet engine and British hero. In 1929, a twenty-two-year-old maverick named Frank Whittle - a self-taught aeronautical obsessive and risk-takingly brilliant RAF pilot - presented a blueprint for a revolutionary, jet-powered aircraft engine to the Air Ministry. His ......
In 1916 Alfred Wright enlisted in the AIF. After training at the Engineer Officer Training School in Moore Park and at Roseville NSW he embarked aboard HMAT A14 Euripides, headed for Britain. On the way, he bought an autograph book, and over the next four years, more than 100 of the people he met signed it.
Catkiller 3-2 provides unique insights into the role of the tactical air controller, airborne (TACA) in I Corps as seen through the eyes of one of the pilots who flew low-flying, unarmed, single-engine aircraft in support of Marine ground units during the Vietnam War. When Gen. William Westmoreland changed the Marines role in I Corps ......
At the height of the pandemic, ninety-nine-year-old WWII veteran Captain Tom Moore began walking laps of his garden to raise e1000 for the NHS. By the time of his 100th birthday, hed reached e32 million and captured the hearts of the nation. In his official autobiography, announced alongside the creation of the Captain Tom Foundation, he tells ......
He masterminded the most devastating surprise attack against the United States in its history. He was a marked man in the war that followed. A key intelligence breakthrough enabled the military to pinpoint his location.
An elite team was assembled and charged not with his capture and subsequent trial but with his execution. Osama ......
This is the story of Lincolnshire farmer David Cundalls quixotic quest to unearth dozens of Spitfire fighters he believes were buried at the end of WWII. Armed with a high-tech survey showing mysterious shapes under the sunbaked surface of Yangon Airport, Davids expedition is equipped with state of the art JCB excavators, supported by a crack ......
This book examines the reality behind the myths of the legendary RAF fighter aces during the Battle of Britain. It explains why only a small minority of pilots those in whom the desire for combat overrode everything accounted for so large a proportion of the victories. It surveys the skills that a successful fighter pilot must have a natural ......
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