Download or read book Squadron of Deception written by Stephen M. Hutton and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 1999 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here at last is the exciting, detailed story of the U.S. Eighth Air Force's only Radar Countermeasure squadron that flew from England duing World War II. This book tells of the men of the elite 36th Bomb Squadron and the special operations they flew in modified B-24s to jam the German radar which controlled the fighter and flak batteries. Here too is the story of the men behind the scenes who sought to develop an extension of modern air warfare into the electronic arena and keep ahead of German scientists in the "War in the Ether." This chronological account gathered from secret records, personal diaries, and interviews with the "Old Crows" describes the night missions with the Royal Air Force and the daylight missions with the Eighth. The first jamming mission on the morning of D-Day "contributed materially to the success of the landings on the beachhead." Later missions during the Battle of the Bulge involved trickery, ingenious deception, spoofs, and tank communications jamming. This squadron flew on bad weather days, when the rest of the Eighth Air Force stood down, and paid its price in blood. Before the war in Europe ended the 36th Bomb Squadron screened Eighth Air Force radio transmissions to stop the enemy from learning important mission details. Here now is the story of how this secret squadron saved many Allied lives during World War II. Included are over 330 rare photographs and illustrations never before published.
Download or read book Artists of Deception written by Rick Beyer and published by . This book was released on 2011-09-18 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Ghost Army" is full of art and photographs telling the story of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, an extraordinary US Army unit that used inflatable tanks and sound effects records to stage a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe during WWII. Many who served in this to-secret unit were artists destined for illustrious post-war art careers, including a budding fashion designer named Bill Blass. In their spare time they painted and sketched their way across war-torn Europe. The book is a catalog for a museum exhibit about the unit, and a companion to the forthcoming documentary film.
Download or read book Capital Navy written by John M. Coski and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to examine the importance of Confederate naval operations on the James River, and their significant (and yet largely ignored) impact on the war in Virginia. It is impossible to fully understand how and why the war unfolded as it did in Virginia (and indeed, the Eastern Theater) without reading this book.
Download or read book Through These Eyes written by T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson, Ed.S. and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2005-10-05 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of Eighth Air Force bombing missions leaving England to blast targets in Hitler's Third Reich in 1944–45. Each clear day, the skies filled with hundreds of B17 Flying Fortress bombers and their escorts crossing the English Channel toward enemy targets protected by anti-aircraft batteries and German fighters waiting to attack the heavy bombers. The skies over the target were filled with black flak appearing to be so thick you could walk on it! The exploding shells filled the space with flying chunks of iron as bombers started their bomb run on the target. We often could hear the flak pelting our plance like a "buckshot" on a tin roof. This flak would often strike a vital part of the plane or wound a member of the crew! Our waist gunner was wounded on our tenth mission!Some missions we could count hundreds of holes in our plane after we landed safely in England! Bombers receiving a direct hit were blown out of the sky and another ten man aircrew was lost. Planes severely damaged had to drop out of formation and face enemy fighters alone unless some of our P-51 or P-47 escort fighters protected them. Bombers disabled or on fire had no choice but to order the crews to bail out. Airmen who survived the parachute jump were captured and placed into German prisoner of war camps (POW). They were classified as "missing in action". Forty-eight photos, some sixty years old are included in this 350 page book to illustrate the story of the author's childhood in the Great Depression through the great air war of World War II. A description of each mission from a sixty year old diary is included. I think you will enjoy the story of a teenage Radio-Gunner's experiences in the Mighty Eighth Air Force.
Download or read book Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis written by Kevin A. Mahoney and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis: Combat Missions over Europe during World War II, historian Kevin A. Mahoney provides a detailed combat history of the crucial role played by this air force from November 1943 through May 1945. Presented by month in chronological order, Mahoney describes all the major bombing and fighter missions carried out by this air force within a strategic context. Each chapter includes an introduction describing developments in the evolution of the strategic air campaign against the Germans, highlights the purpose and importance of the month’s operations, and reviews the Luftwaffe’s resistance and changes in tactics and important developments in the Fifteenth Air Force’s organization. Each monthly narrative further explores most missions, detailing the number of aircraft lost during these missions. Losses are based on an exhaustively researched database compiled by Mahoney that contains details of almost 3,000 aircraft. Target damage is mentioned, while enemy opposition is also described for each mission. Appendices include four short essays on bombing operations (planning and flying of missions, tactics and techniques, bomb types, and bombing accuracy), tactics employed by fighter escort in aerial combat and strafing, combat crews and their aircraft (including a comparison of American fighters and bombers, the training of the crews, and their combat tours), and the Fifteenth Air Force command structure (including the use of intelligence, photo and weather reconnaissance, and the considerable effect of weather on Fifteenth Air Force operations). This work of military history is ideal for students and scholars of the air war in Europe.
Download or read book Overlord written by Thomas Alexander Hughes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-08 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over Lord is the fascinating story of how American tactical air power was developed by General Elwood "Pete" Quesada during World War II, including its decisive role in Operation OVERLORD and the liberation of Europe. Pete Quesada is one of World War II's unsung yet crucial heroes. With his famous "Ninth Tactical Air Command," Quesada established the best air-ground team in the European theater. he pioneered the use of radar in close air support operations, introducing weapons systems specifically geared to tactical operations. He nurtured new flying methods designed for the kind of precision bombing the battlefields of Europe demanded. And more than anything else, Pete Quesada championed efforts to model air and ground officers into a single fighting unit. His relationships with ground leaders like Generals Omar Bradley and "Lightning Joe" Collins were a model for the kind of interservice harmony that was essential for dislodging the entrenched German Army. At war's end everybody from General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower to ordinary infantrymen recognized Pete Quesada as the premier expert and dogged patron of close air support. Allied airplanes over the battlefields of Europe had undoubtedly shortened the war and saved many thousands of lives, and Pete Quesada came home to a hero's welcome in 1945. By then he was the personification of tactical air power. Indeed, he was its over lord. Unfortunately, Quesada's groundbreaking methods were all but forgotten after the war. As the Cold War deepened, Air Force leaders stressed the role of big bombers flying deep into enemy territory and renounced the importance of close air support missions. Quesada himself was shunted into jobs that were both illsuited to his fiery temperament and divorced from his wartime expertise in tactical aviation. Frustrated, he retired from the Air Force in 1951 at forty-seven years of age. Fortunately, the story of Quesada's innovative tactics did not end there for the American military. In Korea in the 1950s and Vietnam in the 1960s, U.S. servicemen struggled -- and died -- relearning and recreating the kinds of tactics that Quesada had made commonplace in 1944-45. Had the U.S. Air Force nurtured its capacity for close air support, those two conflicts may have unfolded differently. Since then, the Air Force has struggled for a better balance between its bombardment missions and its support functions. This is the definitive story of an extraordinary man, whose remarkable efforts to aid foot soldiers in World War II contributed significantly to the Allies' success. America's belated rediscovery of Quesada's precepts some forty years later in conflicts like Operation DESERT STORM only underscores the importance of Quesada's story.
Download or read book The Ghost Army of World War II written by Rick Beyer and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting tale told through personal accounts and sketches along the way—ultimately, a story of success against great odds. I enjoyed it enormously.” —Tom Brokaw The first book to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives—now updated with new material. In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs—artists, designers, architects, and sound engineers, including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey—landed in France to conduct a secret mission. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Every move they made was top secret, and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. Hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, along with maps, official memos, and letters, accompany Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’s meticulous research and interviews with many of the soldiers, weaving a compelling narrative of how an unlikely team carried out amazing battlefield deceptions that saved thousands of American lives and helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. The stunning art created between missions also offers a glimpse of life behind the lines during World War II. This updated edition includes: A new afterword by co-author Rick Beyer Never-before-seen additional images The successful campaign to have the unit awarded a Congressional Gold Medal History and WWII enthusiasts will find The Ghost Army of World War II an essential addition to their library.
Download or read book The Eight Ballers Eyes of the Fifth Air Force written by John Stanaway and published by Schiffer Pub Limited. This book was released on 1999-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning operations in April 1942 with a shoestring flight of four Lockheed F-4 Lightnings (the photo-recon version of the famed P-38), the 8th Photo Squadron gave the American Army Air Forces its only aerial reconnaissance coverage of the Southwest Pacific during the first part of the war. From the first days over New Guinea until the final sweeps over Japan the squadron struggled with the world's most treacherous weather and faulty equipment as well as a resolute Japanese enemy to write an astounding record of keeping the 5th Air Force pictorially informed. The 8th Photo Squadron participated in every campaign from Buna to Hollandia, Lae to Rabaul, the Philippines to the invasion of Okinawa. The squadron played a part in such famous battles as the Coral Sea and Bismarck Sea. Its first commander was Karl Polifka, who went on to be listed in the first rank of American reconnaissance. This book is comprised of over 500 photos most of which have never been published before many from the archives of squadron veterans. Many new facts are added to the annotated squadron diary that was kept when the 8th operated almost singlehandedly during 1942 and 1943.
Download or read book FAA Intercom written by United States. Federal Aviation Administration and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fighter Group written by Lt Col Jay A. Stout and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jay Stout breaks new ground in World War II aviation history with this gripping account of one of the war's most highly decorated American fighter groups.
Download or read book Veil of Deception written by Michael Byars Lewis and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jason Conrad returned to Vance Air Force Base as an instructor pilot in the T-38, he never wanted to leave. For five years, he flew the supersonic jet and was considered one of the best instructors on the base. After a terrifying jet crash, Jason finds himself on a very short list of people on their way out the door. It was a surprise to everyone when he is assigned to the home of the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center. Jason should have known that in a 'one mistake Air Force' where you 'do more with less', everything would not be what appears to be. Attached to a secret project with a shadowy contractor, Jason is caught between two complications; an overbearing retired general determined to see him fail; and an aggressive television reporter who wants him in prison. When a ghost from the past turns up and a beautiful, yet mysterious woman enters his life, Jason soon discovers his special project has more secrets than anyone knows about . . . and it could cost him his life.
Download or read book Swashbucklers and Black Sheep written by Bruce Gamble and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2012-09-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A stunning portrait of incredibly courageous men and their awesome flying machines.”—Alex Kershaw, author of The Few Marine Fighting Squadron (VMF) 214 is the world’s most famous fighter squadron. Its second wartime squadron commander was the legendary Greg “Pappy” Boyington. Boyington and the squadron were the loose inspiration for the late-seventies NBC television series Baa Baa Black Sheep, which was later syndicated under the name Black Sheep Squadron. Swashbucklers and Black Sheep is a comprehensive illustrated history of the squadron from its formation and first two combat tours on Guadalcanal as the Swashbucklers, which included their transition to the iconic gull-winged Corsair, to the arrival of their second commander, Pappy Boyington, after which they became the Black Sheep. The squadron’s combat over Bougainville and Rabaul and the story of Boyington being shot down are covered, as are the squadron’s exploits in the latter part of the war (while Boyington was a POW), which culminated in the heavy losses suffered aboard the carrier USS Franklin. The squadron’s service in Korea, Vietnam, and the Global War on Terror complete the storied history of VMF 214. In addition to a rich collection of historical photography, Swashbucklers and Black Sheep features combat aviation artwork from four of America’s top aviation artists: John Shaw, Jim Laurier, Craig Kodera, and Bob Rasmussen.
Download or read book Deception in War written by Jon Latimer and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2003-04-29 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Trojan Horse to Gulf War subterfuge, this far-reaching military history examines the importance and ingenuity of wartime deception campaigns. The art of military deception is as old as the art of war. This fascinating account of the practice draws on conflicts from around the world and across millennia. The examples stretch from the very beginnings of recorded military history—Pharaoh Ramses II's campaign against the Hittites in 1294 B.C.—to modern times, when technology has placed a stunning array of devices into the arsenals of military commanders. Military historians often underestimate the importance of deception in warfare. This book is the first to fully describe its value. Jon Latimer demonstrates how simple tricks have been devastatingly effective. He also explores how technology has increased the range and subtlety of what is possible—including bogus radio traffic, virtual images, even false smells. Deception in War includes examples from land, sea, and air to show how great commanders have always had, as Winston Churchill put it, that indispensable “element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten.”
Download or read book United States Air Force and Its Antecedents written by James T. Controvich and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bibliography lists published and printed unit histories for the United States Air Force and Its Antecedents, including Air Divisions, Wings, Groups, Squadrons, Aviation Engineers, and the Women's Army Corps.
Download or read book D Day Deception written by Mary K. Barbier and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 6 June 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches at Normandy. The invasion followed several years of argument and planning by Allied leaders, who remained committed to a return to the European continent after the Germans had forced the Allies to evacuate at Dunkirk in May 1940. Before the spring of 1944, however, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other British leaders remained unconvinced that the invasion was feasible. At the Teheran Conference in November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill promised Josef Stalin that Allied troops would launch Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, in the spring. Because of their continuing concerns about Overlord, the British convinced the Americans to implement a cover plan to help ensure the invasion's success. The London Controlling Section (LCS) devised an elaborate two-part plan called Operation Fortitude that SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) helped to fine tune and that both British and American forces implemented Historians analyzing the Normandy invasion frequently devote some discussion to Operation Fortitude. Although they admit that Fortitude North did not accomplish all that the Allied deception planners had hoped, many historians heap praise on Fortitude South, using phrases such as, unquestionably the greatest deception in military history. Many of these historians assume that the deception plan played a crucial role in the June 1944 assault. A reexamination of the sources suggests, however, that other factors contributed as much, if not more, to the Allied victory in Normandy and that Allied forces could have succeeded without the elaborate deception created by the LCS. Moreover, the persistent tendency to exaggerate the operational effect of Fortitude on the German military performance at Normandy continues to draw attention away from other, technical-military reasons for the German failures there.
Download or read book Operation Trickery written by James Howell and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Trickery is a book or historical fiction about World War II. It is intended to present another side of a savage war that killed millions and destroyed much of Europe. War is often complicated yet simple. Some battles were won or lost by the smallest error or deception. Some incidents were classified until 2005. Some rather horrible incidents were humorous in their intent and result. The book is about civilian soldiers thrown into battle sometimes with no purpose but to obey orders. It is about those decisions and quick responses that often are the difference between life and death. The characters are typical of most soldiers during the war and wish only to stop fighting and go home to their sweethearts and loved ones.
Download or read book Fighting Seventeen written by Lee Cook and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Photographic History of VF17 in World War II. This is the true story in photographs, of the famous U.S. Navy Fighting Squadron Seventeen. Flying the new Chance Vought F4U Corsair they broke combat records in the Pacific and were instrumental in proving this powerful new fighter to the Navy in World War II. Amongst Fighting 17s heroic exploits were shooting down 152 Japanese aircraft in aerial combat in only seventy-six days. Tom Blackburn led the squadron to a Navy Unit Commendation and made the Skull and Crossbones Squadron one of the most successful squadrons in the annals of air warfare.
