Download or read book The Royal Air Force written by Michael Napier and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-02-22 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fully illustrated history of the Royal Air Force while on operations, publishing to mark the centenary of its foundation in World War I. The world's first independent air force, the Royal Air Force celebrates its centenary in 2018. In the 100 years since the end of World War I, the service has been involved in almost continuous operations around the globe, giving the RAF the longest and most wide-ranging history of any air force in the world. But over the years this history has also become entangled with myths. The Royal Air Force: A Centenary of Operations sets the record straight, dispelling these as it uncovers – in both words and photographs – the true exploits and accomplishments of RAF personnel over the last 100 years. From its formation as an independent service in the dying days of World War I, its desperate fight against the Axis air forces in World War II, to its commitments during both the Cold War and modern times, this is the complete story of how the RAF has defended Britain for a century.
Download or read book Badges and Uniforms of the Royal Air Force written by Malcolm Hobart and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2012-12-19 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the relatively short yet highly distinguished history of the Royal Air Force there has been a tendency for the men and women of the Service to be overshadowed by the glamour of the aircraft.Nonetheless it is surprising that there has never before been a complete record of the uniforms and badges of the RAF and its predecessor, the Royal Flying Corps. Malcolm Hobart and Pen and Sword Books have cooperated to rectify this serious omission with this superbly color illustrated and comprehensive collector's guide. Badges of rank and trade are all depicted not only for the flying arms but for ground staff. This valuable addition to our Collector series also covers the RAF Reserves and Auxiliary Service, Air Training Corps and the Royal Observer Corps.
Download or read book The Battle of Britain written by T. C. G. James and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2000 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second volume of the classified history of air defence in Great Britain. Written while World War II was still being fought, the account has an analysis of the defensive tactics of Fighter Command, and attempts a day-by-day analysis of the action as it took place.
Download or read book The Royal Air Force in Texas written by Tom Killebrew and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the outbreak of World War II, British RAF officials sought to train aircrews outside of England, safe from enemy attack and poor weather. In the USA, six civilian flight schools dedicated themselves to instructing RAF pilots. Tom Killebrew explores the history of the Terrell Aviation School.
Download or read book The Royal Air Force in American Skies written by Tom Killebrew and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By early 1941, the war raged in Europe and Great Britain stood alone against the aerial might of Nazi Germany. Although much of the Royal Air Force's pilot training program had been relocated to Canada and other Dominion countries, the need for pilots remained acute. The British looked to the United States for possible assistance. Passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941 allowed for the training of British pilots in the United States and the formation of British Flying Training Schools. These unique schools were owned by American operators, staffed with American civilian instructors, supervised by British Royal Air Force officers, utilized aircraft supplied by the U.S. Army Air Corps, and used the RAF training syllabus. Within these pages, Tom Killebrew provides the first comprehensive history of all seven British Flying Training Schools located in Terrell, Texas; Lancaster, California; Miami, Oklahoma; Mesa, Arizona; Clewiston, Florida; Ponca City, Oklahoma; and Sweetwater, Texas. The first British students arrived in a still-neutral United States in June 1941. Many had never been in an airplane (or even driven an automobile), but they mastered the elements of flight, attended ground school classes, were introduced to the mysteries of the Link trainer and instrument flight, and then ventured out on cross country exercises. Students began night flying with the natural apprehension associated with taking off into a black sky, aided by only a few instruments, a flickering flare path, and limited ground references. Some students failed the periodic check flights and had to be eliminated from training, while others were killed during mishaps and are buried in local cemeteries. Those who finished the course became Royal Air Force pilots. But the story of the British Flying Training Schools is more than the story of young men learning to fly. These young British students would also forge a strong and long-lasting bond of friendship with the Americans they came to know. This bond would last not only during training, but would continue throughout the war, and still exist long after the end of the war.
Download or read book RAF in Camera 1950s written by Keith Wilson and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-04-30 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This photographic record of the RAF during the 1950s looks set to appear widely. Featuring varied and dynamic visual representation throughout, the events of this important decade are enlivened to great effect. The 1950s was a pivotal decade in aviation for many reasons. The RAF were employed in a great number of post-WWII roles, and the beginning of the Cold War saw many advances in the field of developmental aviation. The early years of the decade saw the Coronation of HRH Queen Elizabeth II take place, and a variety of photographs taken at the Queen's Review flypast at RAF Oldham on the 15 July 1953 are arrayed here. Meteors, Sabres, Chipmunks, Canberras, Vulcans... the list goes on. A wide selection of action shots illustrate the impressive aesthetics of some of these aircraft in formation. Shots of aircraft utilised during the course of the Cold War also feature, as do highly intriguing photographs of the Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles, stored on Bomber Command bases towards the end of the decade. Each chapter focusses on a specific year, relaying all the most fascinating highlights. This is a colourful, insightful and image-packed history, told with narrative flair and a clear passion for the subject matter at hand.
Download or read book The Symptoms of My Insanity written by Mindy Raf and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Run like the dickens . . . and order this bad boy right now!”—MTV’s Hollywood Crush Blog A laugh-out-loud, bittersweet debut that offers "a female Woody Allen for the teenage set" -- Kirkus Reviews Izzy is a hypochondriac with enormous boobs that won't stop growing, a mother with a rare disease who's hiding something, a best friend who appears to have undergone a personality transplant, and a date with an out-of-her-league athlete who just spilled Gatorade all over her. Yes, Izzy Skymen has a hectic life. But what Izzy doesn't realize is that these are only minor symptoms of life's insanity. When she discovers the people she trusts most are withholding from her the biggest secrets, things are about to get epic--or is it epidemic? For fans of Louise Rennison, Sarah Mlynowski, and Stephanie Perkins comes a "hilarious . . . generous book . . . Should succeed in putting any reader's problem into a wider, and funnier, perspective."--Booklist
Download or read book RAF College Cranwell written by Roger Annett and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2020-01-19 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of Great Britain’s Royal Air Force College in Cranwell, told from the perspective of former cadets. “We Seek the Highest” has been the motto of the thousands of Officer Cadets who, over ten decades, have passed through the rigorous training regime at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, Lincolnshire. The words embody the College ethos: to strive to reach the tough standards demanded by the RAF, in the air and on the ground. This book tells the 100-year story from the point of view of the Officer Cadets themselves. The College was founded in 1919—some eighteen months after the birth of the RAF itself—with the aim of providing a cadre of disciplined, highly trained officers, ready to lead the service through the uncertain postwar and post-Empire times to come. Since then, it has responded continuously to the UK’s political, economic, and military requirements. The RAF Officer Cadets’ world has thus been one of change. The author documents these changes from 1919 to today, overlaying the historical and social scene with the candidly related airborne and ground-based exploits of three-score ex-cadets. The core narrative is based on the three years at Cranwell of 81 Entry of Flight Cadets, who graduated in July 1962 with thirty-seven jet pilots and eight navigators, having launched a curriculum-changing experiment in degree-level studies. With a foreword from an Air Chief Marshal former cadet, 130 illustrations, and a full index, this is a cadets’ tribute to a world-famous military academy on its centenary.
Download or read book The RAF s Armourers written by Tony Lamsdale and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is said that one of the earliest trades in the world is that of the armorer. Historically, it is a profession dated slightly after prostitution, but well before banking! Since the birth of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 through to the modern Royal Air Force, the role of the armorer has been pivotal. Not for nothing did the founder of the RAF, Lord Trenchard, once declare: ‘The armorer – without him there is no need for an air force.’ In the years since the need for RAF armorers was first recognized, it has been a role that has evolved with the times. What has remained constant, however, is the fact that it is still a fascinating and potentially dangerous trade with many different branches and specialisms. In this book the authors, one of whom, Tony Lamsdale, is himself a former RAF armorer, reveal the previously untold story of how the trade has adapted to the most modern of military machines, the aircraft. The authors look at the shared history of the armorer and the RAF through the eyes of those who served. These veterans’ stories span decades, and their first-hand accounts and insights into conflict and peace-time operations demonstrate the qualities and characteristics that make armorers unique. The book starts with a brief history of the armorer, then before capturing the adventures and exploits of RAF armorers from the Second World War and on into the Cold War. The dangerous duties of the armorers on deployment in such places as the Falklands, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan are all explored. There is also the question of having to learn of bomb dumps, the use of small arms and the unique world of the armorer with its own peculiar language and the camaraderie of the crew room. With each chapter brought to life through personal anecdotes and shared experiences, this book provides an insight into an utterly essential role which has remained largely hidden – until now.
Download or read book The Official Illustrated History of RAF Search and Rescue written by Paul E Eden and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-07-09 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 2016 the RAF's Search and Rescue Force (SARF) celebrated its 75th anniversary. In June that year the world-renowned and universally admired service was officially disbanded, despite attempts from many, including HRH Prince William, to save it as part of the RAF. This book is an official, fully illustrated, in-depth account of the SARF's rich and glorious history, from its origins in World War II through to its recent withdrawal. The book contains a foreword by HRH Prince William himself, plus action-packed and awe-inspiring photographs from the RAF's archive of photographs and exclusive interviews with former crewmembers, telling their own dramatic stories of derring-do. Officially endorsed by the RAF, An Illustrated History of the RAF Search and Rescue Force is the first, and probably the only, major book of its kind written on this subject. It is an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in military history, British history, the Royal Family and those who love stories of extreme and daring rescue missions.
Download or read book The RAF Colouring Book written by The History Press and published by History Press. This book was released on 2018-07-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stunning illustrations to colour in, charting the 100-year history of the RAF
Download or read book American Eagles US Fighter Pilots in the RAF 1939 1945 written by Tony Holmes and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-07-31 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Eagles provides a photographic snapshot of the lives of the American fighter pilots who volunteered their services during World War II, as well as the Spitfires and Hurricanes they flew. Keen to help Britain stem the spread of Fascism, or perhaps seeking adventure in a foreign land, a number of American citizens defied the wishes of their government by crossing the border into Canada and subsequently sailing to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. Some were prewar civilian pilots, others were rich playboys and a few were already serving in the RAF when war was declared. Men such as Don Blakeslee, Billy Fiske, 'Gus' Daymond and Jim Dunn, as well as many other notable pilots are featured in this volume, in photographs that have been carefully sourced from official and private archives across the globe. Each image has a detailed caption, chronicling the wartime exploits of the elite 'band of brothers' known as the American Eagles.
Download or read book RAF Wings over Florida written by Will Largent and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1941 through 1945, British cadets in the Royal Air Force trained in the United States through the Lend-Lease Act, President Roosevelt’s ingenious plan to help beleaguered Great Britain while maintaining the semblance of neutrality. This book tells the saga of two Florida training fields during this turbulent time. In their own words, British pilots tell of their Florida experiences. Many of them still in their late teens, away from home for the first time, pale and thin from years of rationing, these young men encountered immense challenges and overwhelming generosity during their training in Florida. Now retired, these former pilots still smell the scent of orange blossoms when they glance through the log books they kept while flying their Stearmans and Harvards over Florida citrus groves. They fondly remember the times when they buzzed over the homes of their Florida “families” to let them know to expect them for Sunday dinner. More than fifty years later, their stories still resonate with universal emotions: fear of failure, love of country, camaraderie, romantic love, and the pain of tragic deaths. Their stories also remind the American reader of a unique time in our history, when, poised on the brink of war, the United States reached out to help a country in distress.
Download or read book The RAF s Air War In Libya written by Dave Sloggett and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2013-01-19 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The uprising in Libya in the spring of 2011 took the world by surprise. The Gaddafi regimes brutal attempts at suppressing the uprising, however, soon prompted the international community to respond. NATO agreed to impose a no-fly zone across Libya, which was led by Britain, France and the USA.For the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, the deployment of RAF and Royal Navy assets in support of UN Resolution 1973, came at a time when severe cuts to the UKs defense spending were in the process of being enacted. With the Royal Navy aircraft carriers and their Harrier jets no longer available, would the UK be able to mount operations 3,000 miles away?In this, the first book to analyze the Libyan campaign, David Sloggett details the causes of the uprising, and examines each stage of the war through to its termination with the death of Colonel Gaddafi.In conclusion, Dr. Sloggett considers the future prospects for a post-Gaddafi Libya and, more significantly, how NATO in general and Britain in particular, will respond to similar events in the future.
Download or read book The RAF s Cross Channel Offensive written by John Starkey and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-01-05 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the RAF, and in particular Fighter Command, during the Battle of Britain has been told many times. It is a tale of the gallant pilots of ‘The Few’, in their Hurricanes and Spitfires, with the nation’s back to the wall, fighting off the Luftwaffe’s airborne assault against enormous odds. But the story of Fighter Command’s operations immediately after the Battle of Britain is less well known. Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard commanded the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. His policy then had been for his aircraft and men to be continually on the offensive, always over the German lines taking the fight to the enemy. After being promoted to command the RAF, Trenchard retired in 1930. In November 1940, Trenchard showed up again at the Air Ministry and proposed that the RAF should ‘Lean Towards France’ – that it should go on the offensive. The RAF would, claimed Trenchard, win the resulting battle of attrition. One of the main outcomes of the RAF’s new offensive stance was the introduction of the Circus sorties. These were attacks undertaken by a small force of bombers with a powerful fighter escort. They were intended to lure enemy fighters into the air so that they could be engaged by RAF fighters, the primary objective being the destruction of Luftwaffe fighters, followed by the protection of the bombers from attack. A further development of the Circus missions were Ramrods, Rhubarbs and Rodeos, all of which were variations on the same theme. A Ramrod was similar to a Circus, though in this instance the primary objective was the destruction of the target, the main role of the accompanying fighters being to protect the bombers from attack. A Rhubarb was a small-scale attack by fighters using cloud cover and/or surprise, the object of which was to destroy German aircraft in the air and/or striking at ground targets, while a Rodeo consisted of a fighter sweep over enemy territory with no bombers. Drawing on official documents and archive material, as well as accounts by many of those involved, James Starkey reveals just how Trenchard’s views won through and the RAF went on the offensive from late 1940 into 1941. Was it a failed strategy? If so, why was it not halted once the results began to be seen?
Download or read book The RAF s Road to D Day written by Greg Baughen and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the summer of 1943, the Third Reich’s fate seemed sealed. The combined might of Britain and the Commonwealth nations, the United States and the Soviet Union had made a Germany victory impossible. All that remained to decide was how the Allies should complete their victory. Would strategic bombing decide the outcome or would ground and air forces working together play the more significant role? Greg Baughen follows the air and land battles in Italy, France and Germany between 1943 and early 1944, as well as the equally bitter battles behind the scenes as army and air commanders debated and argued over how the war should be won. He charts the trials, tribulations, and successes of the bomber offensive and assesses whether, in the final analysis, the bomber strategy shortened or lengthened the war. He explains how army air support went backwards after the successes of the Desert Air Force, and how this led to a failure to support the troops landing on the D-Day beaches in Normandy. He also describes the subsequent revival of tactical air support and how it went on to play a key role in the subsequent campaigns but questions whether Eisenhower, Montgomery or Tedder ever fully understood how to make best use of the massive aerial forces available to them. Drawing on archive documents and accounts written at the time, the author tackles some fundamental defense issues. Was RAF independence a benefit or a hindrance to the Allied cause? To what extent was the War Office to blame for shortcomings in army air support? Did Britain understand the way the methods for waging war were evolving in the twentieth century? He takes a look at how the Air Ministry was interpreting the lessons being learned during the war. Were the defense policies of the twenties and thirties still valid? Had they ever been valid? This, then, is the story of the decisions and actions that the RAF followed in the months leading up to D-Day and the Normandy landings.
Download or read book A Yankee Flier with the R A F written by Rutherford G. Montgomery and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-10-04 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Yankee Flier with the R.A.F" by Rutherford G. Montgomery. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
