Download or read book Fighter Pilot s Summer written by Norman Franks and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unknown to almost everyone Paul Richey started this sequel to his acclaimed book Fighter Pilot in 1941, but was unable to continue it beyond the initial chapters. Now, aviation author and historian Norman Franks, by gaining exclusive access to Paul's papers and diaries, has completed the work. Richey, despite being seriously wounded in the Battle of Britain, returned to fly a tour of operations from RAF Biggin Hill in 1941 as a flight commander in 609 (West Riding) Squadron, RAuxAF, and gain a bar to the DFC he won in France. Fighter Pilot's Summer is the story not only of 609 Squadron's offensive war during that momentous summer, but also of Paul's exploits to the end of the war at Fighter Command HQ and then in India and Burma.
Download or read book Fighter Pilot s Summer written by Norman L. R. Franks and published by Grub Street the Basement. This book was released on 1993 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sequel to Fighter Pilot, which told of Paul Richey's experiences during the first few months of World War II, this book deals with the rest of his war experiences. It includes original documentation and research material, plus original photographs.
Download or read book Officers in Flight Suits written by John Darrell Sherwood and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1998-11 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States Air Force fought as a truly independent service for the first time during the Korean War. As a result, the fighter pilots reigned supreme. In Korea, American air power was challenged by the most advanced fighter of the time -- the Soviet MiG-15 -- and ruled the skies in many celebrated aerial battles. In addition, however, they destroyed virtually every major town and city in North Korea, demolished its entire crop irrigation system, and killed close to one million civilians. Korea, then, is the perfect laboratory for studying the culture of fighter pilots, a culture based on self-confidence and risk-taking, one which has promoted what John Darrell Sherwood calls "flight suit attitude." In Officers in Flight Suits, Sherwood explores the flight suit officer's life, drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, novels, unit records, and personal papers as well as interviews with over fifty veterans who served in the Air Force in Korea. From their training to dramatic encounters during battle, from their socio-economic backgrounds to the flight suit culture they developed, Sherwood investigates every dimension of these pilots' lives. The book provides an illuminating portrait of fighter pilot culture, demonstrating how this culture affected their performance in battle and their attitudes toward others, particularly women, in their off-duty activities - Jacket flap.
Download or read book From F 4 Phantom to A 10 Warthog written by Steve Ladd and published by Air World. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This behind-the-scenes account of a USAF career is “an absorbing read, written with the classic humor fighter pilots seem to have” (Flight Line Book Review). From Baron von Richthofen to Robin Olds, the mystique of the fighter pilot endures. The skill, cunning, and bravery that characterizes this distinctive band of brothers is well known, but there are other dimensions to those who take to the skies to do battle that have not been given the emphasis they deserve—until now. You don’t have to be an aviation aficionado to enjoy Colonel Steve Ladd’s fascinating personal tale, woven around his twenty-eight-year career as a fighter pilot. This extremely engaging account follows a young man from basic pilot training to senior command through narratives that define a unique ethos. From the United States to Southeast Asia, Europe to the Middle East, the amusing and tongue-in-cheek to the deadly serious and poignant, this is the lifelong journey of a fighter pilot. The anecdotes are absorbing, providing an insight into life as an Air Force pilot, but, in this book, as Colonel Ladd stresses, the focus is not on fireworks or stirring tales of derring-do. Instead, this is an articulate and absorbing account of what life is really like among a rare breed of arrogant, cocky, boisterous, and fun-loving young men who readily transform into steely professionals at the controls of a fighter aircraft. “This book will appeal to a variety of readers with its Vietnam War combat stories and accounts of flying the Warthog in Cold War Europe. Fun, flying, international experiences—you won’t want to put it down.” —Aviation News
Download or read book Life as a Battle of Britain Spitfire Pilot written by Arthur Donahue and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect illustrated introduction to the story of the Battle of Britain, daily life as a fighter pilot in the summer of 1940, written by a veteran.
Download or read book Aces of the Reich written by Mike Spick and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fascinating . . . you’ll gain tremendous insight into some of the best fighter pilots the world has ever known, as well as the Luftwaffe’s rise and fall.” —The Military Book Club In 1939, the Luftwaffe was arguably the world’s best-equipped and best-trained air force. Its fighters were second to none, and their pilots had a tactical system superior to any other in the world. In campaigns over Poland, Norway, the Low Countries and France, they carried all before them. Only in the summer of 1940 did they fail by a narrow margin in achieving air superiority over England. In the West, with a mere holding force, they maintained an enviable kill-loss ratio against the RAF, while elsewhere they swept through the Balkans, then decimated the numerically formidable Soviet Air Force. Their top scorers set marks in air combat that have never been surpassed. Yet within three years—despite the introduction of the jet Me 262, the world’s most advanced fighter—the Luftwaffe fighter arm had been totally defeated. How did this happen? Air-warfare historian Mike Spick explores this question in depth in this incisive and compelling study of World War II’s most fearsome air force. “Spick’s work explores one of the interesting questions of World War II: why did the Jagdwaffe, the most efficient, best-trained and most technically advanced air force in the world in 1939 endure a bewildering defeat within three short years. Spick comes up with some interesting theories to do with the influence of the cult of Manfred Von Richtofen (the Red Baron).” —In Flight USA
Download or read book Sierra Hotel flying Air Force fighters in the decade after Vietnam written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 1999, only a few weeks before the U.S. Air Force spearheaded NATO's Allied Force air campaign against Serbia, Col. C.R. Anderegg, USAF (Ret.), visited the commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Colonel Anderegg had known Gen. John Jumper since they had served together as jet forward air controllers in Southeast Asia nearly thirty years earlier. From the vantage point of 1999, they looked back to the day in February 1970, when they first controlled a laser-guided bomb strike. In this book Anderegg takes us from "glimmers of hope" like that one through other major improvements in the Air Force that came between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Always central in Anderegg's account of those changes are the people who made them. This is a very personal book by an officer who participated in the transformation he describes so vividly. Much of his story revolves around the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, where he served two tours as an instructor pilot specializing in guided munitions.
Download or read book Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot written by Jonathan Falconer and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-09-16 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Southern England. Late summer 1940. The nation is fighting for its very survival and the Luftwaffe's aerial offensive is unrelenting. All that lies between invasion and salvation for Britain is the 'thin blue line' of RAF Fighter Command and its pilots. This newly illustrated anniversary edition of Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot reveals what it was like to fly a fighter plane in the Battle of Britain. Who were the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of 1940? How did they spend a typical day? And when pitched together in combat at 30,000 feet, which was the better machine - Spitfire or Me109? Read Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot and then ask yourself: would I have been up to the job?
Download or read book Malta Spitfire written by George Beurling and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2011-07-14 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An aviator’s true story of WWII air combat, including two dramatic weeks in the skies above the besieged island of Malta. Twenty-five thousand feet above Malta—that is where the Spitfires intercepted the Messerschmitts, Macchis, and Reggianes as they swept eastward in their droves, screening the big Junkers with their bomb loads as they pummeled the island beneath: the most bombed patch of ground in the world. One of those Spitfire pilots was George Beurling, nicknamed “Screwball,” who in fourteen flying days destroyed twenty-seven German and Italian aircraft and damaged many more. Hailing from Canada, Beurling finally made it to Malta in the summer of 1942 after hard training and combat across the Channel. Malta Spitfire tells his story and that of the gallant Spitfire squadron, 249, which day after day ascended to the “top of the hill” to meet the enemy against overwhelming odds. With this memoir, readers experience the sensation of being in the cockpit with him, climbing to meet the planes driving in from Sicily, diving down through the fighter screen at the bombers, dodging the bullets coming out of the sun, or whipping up under the belly of an Me for a deflection shot at the engine. This is war without sentiment or romance, told in terms of human courage, skill, and heroism—a classic of WWII military aviation.
Download or read book New Heavens written by Boris Senior and published by Aviation Classics. This book was released on 2006-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Boris Senior may not be well known outside Israel, he played an important, even vital, part in the formation of the Israel Air Force (IAF) and in the 1948 War of Independence. Those who are familiar with his efforts and dedication have an abiding respect and appreciation for this transplanted South African who nearly died when shot down on a mission in 1945 for the Royal Air Force. Leaving the RAF after World War II, Senior dedicated himself to the formation of the state of Israel by joining the Irgun to fight British control of Palestine. Originally undertaking surreptitious operations to undermine the governing authority in Palestine, the onset of the 1948 War of Independence had him back in combat, this time against Israel's Arab neighbors. He flew combat sorties in such widely differing aircraft as the Spitfire and, of all things, a Beechcraft Bonanza, a general-aviation type. Senior used his own money to buy supplies and aircraft, personally under-taking multiple dangerous missions to fly new acquisitions to Israel. His tireless work to form an air defense system for the newly formed State of Israel laid the groundwork for the modern-day Israel Air Force. Through all his experiences, Senior has maintained an abiding understanding of the overall situation that still bedevils the Middle East, particularly Israel and its neighbors. Now, as a senior citizen, his fondest wish is to see the resolution of the age-old problems that result in so many Israelis and Arabs dying in attacks and counterattacks, more than fifty years after he helped launch the IAF.
Download or read book First Kills written by Stefan W. C. Gnys and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Remarkably detailed . . . It is a tribute to Wladyslaw Gnys, the decorated ace pilot, but also to the charming and humble man himself.” —Hamilton Magazine Polish pilot Wladyslaw (Wladek) Gnys was credited with shooting down the first two German aircraft of World War II on September 1, 1939. On this day, as Gnys’ squadron took off near Kraków to intercept the German invaders, German Stuka pilot Frank Neubert attacked, killing the captain. Wladek, who barely survived himself, evaded the pursuing Stukas and went on to make the first Allied kills, while Neubert was credited with the first aerial kill of the war. Fifty years after the invasion of Poland, in the summer of 1989, Gnys and Neubert met and shook hands, making news around the world. They reconciled their differences and remained friends until their deaths. This event symbolized the prevailing friendly coexistence between Poland and Germany. Written by his son Stefan and drawing from his logbooks, this highly illustrated biography of Wladek Gnys is the most in-depth account of the Polish hero’s life. It tells Wladek’s story from his childhood in rural Poland, through his time flying in three Allied air forces during World War II, his capture and escape during Operation Overlord, and his reconciliation with Neubert and his commemoration as a national war hero in Poland. “Tells the story of one man’s ride through the history of most of the 20th century . . . This is far from a run-of-the-mill wartime story, being more of a touching and revealing look into an extraordinary life.” —Aircrew Remembered
Download or read book Fighter Boys written by Patrick Bishop and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-07-27 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For 123 days in the summer of 1940, 3,000 youthful airmen in the Royal Air Force fought back against Hitler’s advancing forces with a heroism that astonished the world. Drawing on interviews with scores of surviving pilots as well as diaries and letters never before seen, military historian and journalist Patrick Bishop re-creates with astonishing intimacy and clarity this excruciating, exhilarating war of nerves. In their own words, the pilots describe what it was like to bale out from a stricken plane, to go into battle in the face of overwhelming odds, to hear the screams of a comrade as he went down in flames. With a riveting, taut narrative, Fighter Boys relates how those young heroes changed the course of World War II—and the history of the modern world.
Download or read book The Luftwaffe Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot s Kitbag written by Mark Hillier and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-03-30 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Detail[s] German fighter pilots’ flying helmets, oxygen masks, goggles . . . and other ephemera . . . brilliantly done—and completely engrossing.”—The Aviation Historian Reichsmarschall Gring told Hitler that it would take less than a month for his much-vaunted Luftwaffe to conquer the RAF and pave the way for the German invasion of Great Britain. His prediction was to prove disastrously wrong, but for four long months his pilots and aircrew fought for their lives in the skies above the UK. From their bases in continental Europe, the Luftwaffe’s fighter pilots escorted the great bomber fleets that sought to destroy the RAF’s airfields and installations, and tackled the Spitfires and Hurricanes deployed to defend Britain’s towns and cities. Whilst much has been written on the titanic struggle for supremacy fought throughout the summer of 1940 and of the men and machines of both sides, little attention has been paid to what the pilots wore and carried with them in the air. All the objects that a Luftwaffe fighter pilot was issued with during the Battle of Britain are explored in this book in high-definition color photographs, showing everything from the differing uniforms, to headgear, personal weapons, gloves, goggles, parachute packs and the essential life jacket. Each item is fully described and its purpose and use explained. Fly with the Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Bf 110s across the Channel and see what the Luftwaffe aircrew wore as they took on Fighter Command in what was justly called the Battle of Britain. “An outstanding example of history through artifacts.”—Schopenhauer's Workshop
Download or read book The Friday Pilots written by Don Shepperd and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2014-11-10 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book of first-person stories written by old pilots, those who flew the old airplanes in the old air force. These are personal stories of growing up in a different America, their lives before political correctness, back when airplanes were dangerous but flying was fun. The group calls themselves the Friday Pilots. They gather at McMahon's Prime Steakhouse in Tucson, Arizona, every Friday for lunch. There are those who finished careers as generals and colonels and majors and captains and even first lieutenants. They laugh. They exchange stories, some true. They have become legends in their own minds. There are fighter pilots, bomber pilots, airline pilots, corporate pilots, and astronauts. They have run large companies and been on boards. They have been rich and they have been poor. They have landed gear up and gear down. They have ridden huge rockets into space. They have crashed and burned. They have been to war. They have been blown from the skies, have run through jungles, and have parachuted into oceans. They have been captured and imprisoned as POWs and horribly tortured. There are heroes at the table, but none will admit it. They will tell you they have flown with those who were. It seems everyone talks about writing a book. The Friday Pilots have done something few do: they have written their stories for their families and friends. Strap in, hold on, and enjoy the ride!
Download or read book Spitfire written by Brian Lane and published by Amberley Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable Battle of Britain experiences of Spitfire pilot Brian Lane, DFC. Brian Lane was only 23 when he when he wrote his dramatic account of life as a Spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. Lane was an 'ace' with six enemy 'kills' to his credit and was awarded the DFC for bravery in combat. The text is honest and vibrant, and has the immediacy of a book written close the event, untouched, therefore, by the doubts and debates of later years. Here we can read, exactly what it was like to 'scramble', to shoot down Messerschmitts, Heinkels, Dorniers and Stukas and how it felt to lose comrades every day. Squadron Leader Brian Lane DFC was not only an exceptional fighter pilot but likewise a gifted leader, at all levels. In what was still a hierarchical and class conscious culture, 'Chiefy' Lane was different: he knew everyone under his command by first names, no matter how lowly their rank or status, and in the air he was always unflappable, calmly making the right tactical decision and in the process earning unlimited respect amongst pilots and aircrew. All these years later the survivors still speak of him with an unparalleled affection and respect bordering upon a holy reverence. High drama has never before been so characteristically understated, written, as it was, by the 'Finest of the Few'.
Download or read book Never Lark nor Eagle written by Ray Castagnaro and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2002-11-06 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Never Lark nor Eagle: A Fighter Pilot´s Story, the novel by Ray Castagnaro, is accurate, entertaining Historical fiction about Yanks in the RAF during the Battle of Britain, and their eventual transition to the U.S. Army Air Forces. The story continues with dangerous test flying at Muroc Lake, California, then the exploits of the "Fourth but First" Fighter Group in Korea. The reader witnesses counterinsurgency in the jungles of the Philippines, espionage in 1950s Saigon, and hypersonic test flying at Edwards. It climaxes with the electrifying, but often overlooked air campaign over Vietnam. As told through the saga of one extraordinary American family, the story of the most exciting period in aviation history is told with historical accuracy, passion, and humor. You will need to have both Volumes I & II to read the whole story. VOLUME II: Continuation of the fictional career of fighter pilot Carl ?Bing? Morro and his family, from 1958 through 1978. Col Carl Morro, now a veteran of combat in WWII and Korea, as well as dangerous test pilot flying and espionage in Southeast Asia, returns to his roots to face an undeniable truth. The reader continues to witness the true, and often humorous stories behind today?s aeronautical wonder weapons through the fictional eyes of a man who helped develop them and their tactics from the early supersonic era through the Vietnam conflict. Triumph, tragedy, love, war, revenge, deliverance. © 1980, 1990, 2002
Download or read book The RAF Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot s Kitbag written by Mark Hillier and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-03-30 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scenes are familiar ones; the young Brylcream Boys sat at dispersal waiting for the haunting call of Scramble, lounging in their shirt sleeves and fur-lined boots, their leather flying helmets lying limp by their side. But what did the RAF fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain really wear, and what vital items would their kitbags have held?The casual air of the dashing pilots of Fighter Command in the Spitfire Summer of 1940 conceals a necessarily professional approach to their task of holding Hitlers Luftwaffe at bay. Therefore, each item of clothing and equipment they wore and carried had a role and a function, be it for warmth and comfort, communication, or for fighting and survival.All the objects that an RAF fighter pilot was issued with during the Battle of Britain are explored in this book in high-definition color photographs, showing everything from the differing uniforms, to headgear, personal weapons, gloves, goggles, parachute packs and the essential Mae West life jacket. Each item is fully described and its purpose and use explained.Relive Britains finest hour as never before through the actually clothing and accouterments of The Few.