Download or read book Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko Betty Units of World War 2 written by Osamu Tagaya and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-20 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most produced Japanese bomber of the war the G4M saw action on every front from the first day of the Pacific conflict through to VJ-Day. The 'Betty's' very long range made it a key weapon during the opening year of the war. However, to achieve this, the aircraft was built with very little protective armour for its crew or fuel tanks, and Allied pilots soon exposed its extreme vulnerability. In the first in a series of volumes examining the key Japanese aircraft of WW2, Dr Osamu Tagaya details the G4M's extensive combat history, and lists all the units which operated the bomber.
Download or read book Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko Betty Units of World War 2 written by Osamu Tagaya and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-20 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most produced Japanese bomber of the war the G4M saw action on every front from the first day of the Pacific conflict through to VJ-Day. The 'Betty's' very long range made it a key weapon during the opening year of the war. However, to achieve this, the aircraft was built with very little protective armour for its crew or fuel tanks, and Allied pilots soon exposed its extreme vulnerability. In the first in a series of volumes examining the key Japanese aircraft of WW2, Dr Osamu Tagaya details the G4M's extensive combat history, and lists all the units which operated the bomber.
Download or read book King George V Class Battleships written by Daniel Knowles and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2022-04-08 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the First World War the major naval powers entered into an agreement restricting the construction of capital ships and limiting the numbers that signatories were allowed to maintain, so numerous ships were scrapped or disposed of and the majority of planned vessel were either cancelled whilst being built or never laid down. By the late 1920s the Royal Navy’s battle force comprised of the two Nelson-class ships, the battlecruisers ‘Hood’, ‘Renown’ and ‘Repulse’, and ‘Revenge’ and Queen Elizabeth-class ships, all designed before the First World War. In 1928 the Royal Navy began planning a new class of battleships which was put on hold with the signing of the Treaty of London. In 1935, realising its battle fleet was becoming dated as other nations laid down new classes of battleships, the Royal Navy recommenced planning capital ships within treaty limitations. The result was the King George V-class battleships. Regarded by some as the worst new-generation battleships in the Second World War the King George V-class were Britain’s most modern battleships during the conflict and saw action in some of the most famous engagements from the sinking of the ‘Bismarck’ in 1941 to the surrender of Japan in 1945. This book charts the story of the King George V-class from its conception and design through to the operational history of the ships in the class.
Download or read book International Warbirds written by John C. Fredriksen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In depth descriptions and photographs of the aircraft of 21 nations presented with a unique human dimension that goes behind the machines to the people involved. Invaluable for specialists, accessible to enthusiasts, International Warbirds: An Illustrated Guide to World Military Aircraft, 1914–2000 puts the most legendary fighter aircraft of the 20th century developed outside the United States on vivid display. It offers 336 illustrated "biographies" of the most significant warplanes used in squadron service from World War I to the Balkan conflict, including numerous models from Great Britain, France, Russia, and Japan, as well as notable machines from Israel, Canada, China, India, Brazil, and other nations. Entries span the history and scope of military aircraft from bombers and fighters to transports, trainers, reconnaissance craft, sea planes, and helicopters, with each capsule history combining nuts-and-bolts technical data with the story of that model's evolution and use. Together, these portraits offer an exciting, well-researched tribute to visionary designers and builders as well as courageous pilots and crews across the globe, and tell a vivid tale of how air power became such a decisive factor in modern warfare.
Download or read book Naval Aviation News written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Atomic Salvation written by Doctor Tom Lewis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-07-08 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So did not the atomic weapons bring about a great peace? Since the initial grateful acknowledgement of the success of the A-bomb attacks in ending World War II, there has been a steady reversal of opinion and sentiment: from a first hearty appreciation to a condemnation by many, of the United States for its actions. Atomic Salvation investigates the full situation of the times to a previously unplumbed depth. It examines documents from both Japanese and Allied sources, but it uses logical in-depth analysis to extend beyond the mere recounting of statistics. It charts the full extent of the possible casualties on both sides if a conventional assault akin to D-Day had gone ahead. The work is concerned solely with the military necessity to use the bombs, but it also investigates why that necessity has been increasingly challenged over the successive decades. Controversially, the book shows that the Japanese nation would have lost many millions of their people – likely around 28 million – if the nation had been attacked in the manner by which Germany was defeated: by amphibious assault; artillery and air attacks preceding infantry insertion, and finally by subduing the last of the defenders of the enemy capital. From the other side, the book investigates the enormous political pressure placed on America as a result of their military situation. The USA’s Truman Administration had little choice but to use the new weapon given the more than a million deaths Allied forces would undoubtedly have suffered through conventional assault. Through investigation of reactions then and since, Atomic Salvation charts reaction to the bombings. It looks briefly at a range of reactions through the decades and shows that there has been relentless pressure on the world to condemn what at the time was seen as the best, and the only, military solution to end the war. Never has such an exhaustive analysis been made of the necessity behind bringing World War II to a halt.
Download or read book US Marine Corps Fighter Squadrons of World War II written by Barrett Tillman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The US Marine Corps has a long heritage of aviation excellence, a reputation that was largely built on the impact and performance of the “flying leathernecks” in the bitter fighting in the Pacific during World War II. As the US island-hopping campaign against Japan gathered pace, US Marine Corps fighter squadrons operating legendary Grumman and Vought aircraft became instrumental in the success of amphibious assaults and in breaking fierce enemy resistance, engaging Japanese attack aircraft in the skies and ground-based targets while supporting and protecting US ground forces. The flying legends Marion Carl, Greg “Pappy” Boyington, Joe Foss and others were all World War II Marine fighter pilots, taking to the skies in Corsairs, Wildcats, Venturas and Hellcats. Aviation historian Barrett Tillman's comprehensive account US Marine Corps Fighter Squadrons of World War II pays homage to these individuals and their mounts, and is packed with historic and organizational details of the squadrons who took to the skies above the Pacific.
Download or read book Guadalcanal 1942 43 written by Mark Stille and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-28 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The campaign for Guadalcanal, which stretched from August 1942 until February 1943, centered on Henderson Field. The airfield was captured by the US on 8 August and placed into operation by 20 August. As long as the airfield was kept operational and stocked with sufficient striking power, the Japanese could not run convoys with heavy equipment and large amounts of supplies to the island. Instead, they were forced to rely on night runs by destroyers which could not carry enough men or supplies to shift the balance decisively against the American garrison on the island. The American air contingent on the island, named the 'Cactus Air Force', comprised Marine, Navy and Army Air Force units. It had the challenging mission of defending the airfield against constant Japanese attacks, and more importantly, of striking major Japanese attempts to reinforce the island. The mission of neutralizing Henderson Field fell primarily to the Imperial Navy's Air Force flying out of airfields in the Rabaul area. The units charged with this mission were among the most accomplished in the entire Imperial Navy with a high proportion of very experienced pilots and a superb air superiority fighter (the famous 'Zero'). However, the distance from Rabaul to Guadalcanal handicapped Japanese operations and their primary bomber was terribly vulnerable to interception. This book traces the air campaign from both sides and explores the factors behind the American victory and the Japanese defeat. The text is supported by full-colour illustrations and contemporary photography.
Download or read book Kamikazes Corsairs and Picket Ships written by Robin L. Rielly and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2008-09-05 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of ferocious air and naval combat during the WWII Battle of Okinawa—drawn from primary sources and survivor interviews. This is the story of an overlooked yet significant aerial and naval battle during the American assault on Okinawa in the spring of 1945. While losses to America’s main fleet are well recorded, less well known is the terrific battle waged on the radar picket line, the fleet’s outer defense against Japanese marauders. Weaving together the experiences of the ships and their crews—drawn from ship and aircraft action reports, ship logs, and personal interviews—historian Robin L. Reilly recounts one of the most ferocious air and naval battles in history. The US fleet—and its accompanying airpower—was so massive that the Japanese could only rely on suicide attacks to inflict critical damage. Of the 206 ships that served on radar picket duty, twenty-nine percent were sunk or damaged by Japanese air attacks, making theirs the most hazardous naval surface duty in World War II. The great losses were largely due to relentless kamikaze attacks, but also resulted from the improper use of support gunboats, failure to establish land-based radar at the earliest possible time, the assignment of ships ill-equipped for picket duty, and, as time went on, crew fatigue. US air cover during the battle is also described in full, as squadrons dashed from their carriers and land bases to intercept the Japanese swarms, resulting in constant melees over the fleet.
Download or read book Saipan written by James H. Hallas and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the Battle of Saipan has it all. Marines at war: on Pacific beaches, in hellish volcanic landscapes in places like Purple Heart Ridge, Death Valley, and Hell’s Pocket, under a commander known as “Howlin’ Mad.” Naval combat: carriers battling carriers from afar, fighters downing Japanese aircraft, submarines sinking carriers. Marine-army rivalry. Fanatical Japanese defense and resistance. A turning point of the Pacific War. James Hallas reconstructs the full panorama of Saipan in a way that no recent chronicler of the battle has done. In its comprehensiveness, attention to detail, scope of research, and ultimate focus on the men who fought and won the battle on the beaches and at and above the sea, it rivals Richard Frank’s modern classic Guadalcanal. This is the definitive military history of the Battle of Saipan.
Download or read book Whitey written by Peter B Mersky and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-11-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whitey is the first complete biography of one of the last surviving World War II U.S. Navy aces, and one of the Navy’s most respected officers of any period. Following a typical American, mid-western boyhood, Whitey Feightner was in the vanguard of the huge group of young men thrust into World War II. Upon receiving his commission and his gold wings, he was assigned to a fighter squadron in the Pacific and soon found himself flying with the likes of Jimmy Flatley and Butch O’Hare, two leaders who imparted their own brand of flying skill and leadership to the young ensign. He flew through many of the war’s most hectic and dangerous campaigns, such as Guadalcanal and the Marianas, gaining nine official kills. There were times he should not have returned from a mission, but his own skill and positive outlook helped him make it through all the dangers. After the war, Whitey became a member of the Regular Navy and was assigned to several of the Navy’s most secret and action-filled projects at Patuxent River, Maryland. He flew and helped develop legendary fighters like the F7U Cutlass, F9F Banshee, and Cougar and the attack aircraft AD Skyraider as they joined the fleet, and was one of only two men who flew the radical F7U Cutlass in Blue Angels colors. Returning to the fleet in command of a squadron, and later of an air group, he continued to develop fighter tactics. In between tours at sea, he served in the Pentagon dealing with all the personalities and political turmoil of the time while trying to bring naval aviation into the future. Working with such luminaries as Hyman Rickover and Elmo Zumwalt was not for the feint-hearted, and even Whitey did not come away unscathed. Yet, through it all, he retained the affable demeanor that characterized this rare and highly skilled naval aviator. His life story could serve as a model for any young aviator to follow.
Download or read book When the Shooting Stopped written by Barrett Tillman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-04-14 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Highly recommended as a sobering but enlightening account.” Richard B. Frank, author of Downfall: The End of the Japanese Empire In the 44 months between December 1941 and August 1945, the Pacific Theater absorbed the attention of the American nation and military longer than any other. Despite the Allied grand strategy of “Germany first,” after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. especially was committed to confronting Tokyo as a matter of urgent priority. But from Oahu to Tokyo was a long, sanguinary slog, averaging an advance of just three miles per day. The U.S. human toll paid on that road reached some 108,000 battle deaths, more than one-third the U.S. wartime total. But by the summer of 1945 on both the American homefront and on the frontline there was hope. The stunning announcements of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 seemed sure to force Tokyo over the tipping point since the Allies' surrender demand from Potsdam, Germany, in July. What few understood was the vast gap in the cultural ethos of East and West at that time. In fact, most of the Japanese cabinet refused to surrender and vicious dogfights were still waged in the skies above Japan. This fascinating new history tells the dramatic story of the final weeks of the war, detailing the last brutal battles on air, land and sea with evocative first-hand accounts from pilots and sailors caught up in these extraordinary events. Barrett Tillman then expertly details the first weeks of a tenuous peace and the drawing of battle lines with the forthcoming Cold War as Soviet forces concluded their invasion of Manchuria. When the Shooting Stopped retells these dramatic events, drawing on accounts from all sides to relive the days when the war finally ended and the world was forever changed.
Download or read book Nakajima Ki 49 Helen Units written by George Eleftheriou and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-05-25 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fully illustrated study of the Nakajima Ki49 'Helen', the twin-engined bomber of the Pacific War, from Japanese aviation expert George Eleftheriou. The Nakajima Ki-49 Donryu ('Dragon Eater'), codenamed 'Helen' by the Allies, was a twin-engined Japanese bomber designed to undertake daylight attacks without the protection of escort fighters. Consequently, while it was officially known as the Army Type 100 Heavy Bomber, its formidable defensive armament and armour were so heavy that they restricted the Ki-49 to payloads comparable to those of smaller medium bombers. While only five heavy bomber sentai (regiments) were equipped with the 'Helen', the over 800 Ki-49s built between 1941 and 1944 saw extensive action in Burma, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, northern India and north Australia. In an act of desperation, a small number of 'Helens' were even employed, unsuccessfully, as kamikaze aircraft against US Navy warships operating off the Philippines and Okinawa. In this fascinating book, George Eleftheriou provides a comprehensive account of the units that saw action flying the 'Helen', based on original Japanese sources. Also featuring high-quality photographs never published before, specially commissioned colour profile artwork, official unit histories and veteran accounts, this title is a must-have for Japanese aircraft enthusiasts.
Download or read book The Old Breed of Marine written by Abraham Felber and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-09-11 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Friday, August 7, 1942, at 1300, after a furious cannonading by the Navy fighting vessels slamming salvo after salvo into the shores, 36-year-old Marine Sergeant Abraham Felber jumped from a Higgins boat onto Beach Red in the first-wave assault on the deadly jungle island of Guadalcanal. Felber was responsible for writing the Record of Events for his unit, and recorded in meticulous detail the fighting that wrested Guadalcanal from the enemy in the skies, off the shores, and in the muddy jungles. This work is part of the diary that Abraham Felber kept during his service in World War II. It begins with January 7, 1941, and ends with December 31, 1945. As the 1st Sergeant of Headquarters Battery, 11th Marines, Felber dealt with both officers and enlisted men, which exposed him to the perspectives and insights of both. Felber was also granted the unusual privilege of taking photographs during the Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester campaigns, some of which are published here for the first time. Felber's accounts of his unit's role in the combat at Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester; his time at Guantanamo Bay, Parris Island and Camp Lejune; daily life, and other experiences are presented here as he recorded them.
Download or read book P 40E Warhawk vs A6M2 Zero sen written by Peter Ingman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The P-40E Warhawk is often viewed as one of the less successful American fighter designs of World War II, but in 1942 the aircraft was all that was available to the USAAC in-theatre. Units equipped with the aircraft were duly forced into combat against the deadly A6M2 Zero-sen, which had already earned itself a near-mythical reputation following its exploits over China and Pearl Harbor. During an eight-month period in 1942, an extended air campaign was fought out between the two fighters for air superiority over the Javanese and then northern Australian skies. During this time, the P-40Es and the Zero-sens regularly clashed without interference from other fighter types. In respect to losses, the Japanese 'won' these engagements, for many more P-40Es were shot down than Zero-sens. However, the American Warhawks provided a potent deterrent that forced the IJNAF to attack from high altitudes, where crews' bombing efficiency was much poorer. Fully illustrated throughout, and supported by rare and previously unpublished photographs, this book draws on both American and Japanese sources to tell the full story of the clashes between these iconic two fighters in Darwin and the East Indies.
Download or read book Guadalcanal Campaign written by and published by PediaPress. This book was released on with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book H6K Mavis H8K Emily vs PB4Y 1 2 Liberator Privateer written by Edward M. Young and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated exploration of the dramatic aerial combats between the US Navy's long-range bomber and Japanese flying boats in the Pacific War. Edward Young explores these rarely written about combats, examining the aggressive and strategic tactics deployed by both US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force and analyzing the technical improvements installed throughout the war. The PB4Y-1/2 Liberator/Privateer was the US Navy's first four-engined, land-based bomber, adapted and allocated to fight the U-boat menace in the Atlantic and protect the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean. The long range, speed, armament and bomb load of the PB4Y-1 enabled the US Navy's Pacific squadrons to adopt more aggressive tactics. The PB4Y-1, and its follow-on PB4Y-2, engaged in dangerous bombing missions against Japanese installations, shipping strikes, and air combat. On the other side, with its doctrine of making the first strike against an enemy fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy recognized the vital importance of maritime reconnaissance, relying on carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft, ship-borne floatplanes and, for long-range maritime patrol, flying boats. The Japanese would continue to develop their aircraft throughout the war, resulting, among others, in the H6K 'Mavis' and the H8K2 'Emily', which despite never achieving a victory, was regarded by the Allied pilots as the most difficult Japanese aircraft to destroy. Enriched with specially commissioned artwork, including armament and cockpit views, battlescenes and technical diagrams, this title analyses technical specifications in detail. By including first-hand accounts, aviation expert Edward Young provides a detailed account of these one-sided yet dramatic and aggressive combats.
