Download or read book Tito s Underground Air Base written by Bojan Dimitrijevic and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The air force of Tito's Yugoslavia has had many different peculiarities - from a unique Cold War position of having operated a mix of US, Soviet, and indigenous aircraft and equipment, to the changeable strategies in case of war.One such feature was an entire underground air base constructed inside a hill near the town of Bihac, in western Bosnia. 'The Object' was the core, the heart, of this air base: it housed four MiG-21 squadrons for nearly 25 years, until the civil war tore Yugoslavia apart.'The Object' was built as the outcome of Yugoslav military efforts to build up its independent defence capabilities, especially the air force which was regarded as the strategic tool in keeping Tito's Yugoslavia's independence from both Cold War blocks. There were a few other underground shelters built at Yugoslavia's air bases, but Bihać underground air base remained the only underground facility which was permanently used.Bihać Air Base was constructed directly on the border between two former federal states of Yugoslavia, now two independent countries: The Republic of Croatia, and The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Indeed, their post-independence border runs between the former taxiways and underground entrances. Nowadays, its ruins are a place of pilgrimage by many aviation and military enthusiasts, and is known as 'Zeljava', after a nearby village on the Croatian side.In its five chapters this book provides an in-depth account of the design and construction of the air base and its 'underground object', and a detailed account of the activities of its MiG-21 squadrons and everyday operations in the period between 1968 and 1991. The book concludes with an exhaustive description of combat operations during the final year of the existence of the Bihać Air Base in 1991-1992, under the conditions of the civil war.Drawing upon exclusive archival sources - many of them classified until very recently - the authors have expanded the emerging story through interviews with dozens of officers and other ranks that served at this 'underground aircraft carrier', thus managing to fill the gaps in usage not covered by the documentation.'Tito's Underground Air Base' is lavishly illustrated with a huge collection of exclusive photographs collected from numerous archives, museums, and private collections, and a set of authentic colour profiles and diagrams. It is a unique source of reference about one of most fascinating projects related to underground military facilities constructed during the Cold War.
Download or read book Silver Birds Over the Estuary written by Bojan Dimitrijevic and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mikoyan i Gurevich MiG-21 has been built in greater numbers than any other combat aircraft since 1945. It also saw service with more air forces than any other type manufactured over the last 70 years.Locally designated the 'L' (for Lovac or fighter), for more than half a century over 260 MiG-21s in 12 different versions and sub-variants formed the backbone of the Yugoslav Air Force and Air Defence Force (JRV i PVO) and later the Serbian Air Force (RV i PVO).Entering service at the peak of the Cold War, the MiG-21 quickly replaced the US-supplied North American F-86E and F-86D Sabres in the Yugoslav inventory. The first version, MiG-21F-13, was followed by the MiG-21PFM in 1967, and MiG-21M/MF in 1970. Serving with the 204th Fighter Regiment, the task of these fighters was the air defence of Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia.Whenever a new and more advanced variant became available, older types were handed over to other units. This is how the 117th Fighter Regiment came into being, based at the famous underground air base outside the town of Bihac. The Pristina-based 83rd Fighter Regiment followed in 1972.In Tito's Yugoslavia, the MiG-21 was also deployed for strategic reconnaissance. In 1968-1969, the JRV i PVO introduced the MiG-21R to service, which became the primary photo- and electronic reconnaissance platform of the entire military. The importance of the fleet was further increased in 1984, when US-made Fairchild KA-112 LORAP containers were added to their arsenal.The final and most widely used version became the MiG-21bis, delivered to Yugoslavia in the 1977-1983 period. By the time of the dissolution of the country, in 1991-1992, it formed the backbone of the fleet and saw intensive combat service as a fighter-bomber during the conflicts in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of particular interest during this period was the widespread use of diverse ordnance of native and NATO-origins.While operated by the RV i PVO, MiG-21s did not fly any combat sorties during NATO's campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia of 1999 - better known as the 'Kosovo War'. Nevertheless, it was intensively targeted by NATO's air power, resulting in destruction of nearly half the fleet.Although subsequently considered 'obsolete', and operated in continuously declining numbers, the MiG-21bis continued soldiering on with the RV i PVO, and even maintained quick reaction alert duty until late 2015, when officially retired. The final handful of two-seat conversion trainers is still in service as this volume is prepared.The book is based upon the author's extensive research in Serbian and Croatian archives, museums and interviews with veterans that flew this type. Most of the photos in this volume have never been published before.
Download or read book The Yugoslav Air Force in the Battles for Slovenia Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina 1991 92 written by Aleksandar Radic and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the late 1980s, the former Socialist Federal Republic of Jugoslavia (SFRJ) - a country dominating the Balkans - experienced a period of major crisis. Led by the Communist Party, the nation's leadership failed to understand the depth of political changes all over Eastern Europe, and then split along ethic lines. In 1988-1989, ethnic Albanians in the autonomous province of Kosovo began demanding independence: the authorities of the SFRJ reacted by suppressing the resulting demonstrations. In the Federal Republic of Serbia, public opinion slid into nationalism, which the local communist leadership exploited to maintain itself in power. By 1990, nationalistic leaders rose to power in Slovenia and Croatia, and publicly announced their intention to secede these federal republics.Under the heavy shadow of growing war-mongering, politicians from all three sides met to reach settlements on the division of their and their emerging nation's interests. The last few influential supporters of the preservation of a federal state were quickly pushed aside, and the powerful military of the SRFJ - the Yugoslav Popular Army (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija, JNA) - became an instrument of political games.The Slovenian and Croatian proclamations of independence, in June 1991, proved to be the drop that over spilled the barrel. Already split by deep rifts within their top political and military leaders, the federal authorities launched a rather confused attempt to recover control over the external borders of the SRFJ. The nascent Slovenian military resisted, causing a series of bloody clashes with the JNA.Tasked with the transport and protection of federal employees, the Yugoslav Air Force and Air Defence (JRViPVO) found itself in the thick of combat from day one of this conflict, when the Slovenes shot down two of its helicopters. In return, the JRViPVO began flying attack sorties, which ended only through a political agreement of 2 July 1991, and the decision for Yugoslav authorities to withdraw from Slovenia.Hard on the heels of this drama, the conflict between Croats and Serbs in Croatia reached boiling point, in the summer of 1991. Slowly at first, a major war erupted, which caught the JRViPVO in a paradoxical situation as part of it was still undergoing training, while another part had to fly shows of power, and undertake reconnaissance, transport and then the first combat operations. By September 1991, the conflict turned into an ugly slugging match: Croatian forces had blocked numerous military bases and major storage depots while the JNA received orders to lift the sieges of its surrounded units. Amid the following civil war, the JRViPVO often found itself forced to take drastic decisions, like when one of its units was relocated from the Federal Republic of Macedonia to Pula in Croatia, to fly combat sorties over the local battlefields.For the JRViPVO, the war in Croatia ended through a political settlement and a cease-fire of 3 January 1992. However, only weeks later the force was to see its final action in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it flew combat operations against local separatists. While another political agreement resulted in a withdrawal of all federal forces from this part of the former Yugoslavia on 19 Mary 1992, and the loss (and destruction) of the major air base outside Bihac, this was also the swan song of the once proud Yugoslav air force.Based on the author's unique approach to local archives and first-hand sources, and illustrated by over 120 photographs and colour profiles, the 'JRVIPVO in Yugoslav War' is the first ever authoritative account of combat operations of the former Yugoslav Air Force in the conflict that shaped the modern-day southern Europe, and an indispensable source of reference on contemporary military history of this part of the World.
Download or read book We Were Never There written by Kevin Wright and published by Europe@War. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines early CIA U-2 operations looking at the missions flown and the sensors carried and describes how the imagery and electronic intelligence captured produced thousands of images and tape recordings that were used to produce high quality intelligence on the USSR's most secret military and scientific activities.
Download or read book Hot Skies of the Cold War written by ALEXANDER. MLADENOV and published by . This book was released on 2020-02-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the end of the Second World War, Bulgaria fell in total dependency upon the Soviet Union as a direct result of the 1944 Yalta agreement on the 'spheres of influence' division of Europe. The Bulgarian Air Force was radically reformed in the Soviet style and rapidly re-equipped with huge numbers of front-line aircraft.The strengthening of the Bulgarian air arm became a high priority as the Cold War in the Balkans gathered speed, and small incidents near the southern and western borders of the country began to occur with increasing frequency. The extensive 'Sovietisation' of the Bulgarian air arm led to the eventual change of its official title in late 1949, becoming identical to its Soviet counterpart, the Voennovazdushni Sily (VVS), featuring a structure identical to that of a Soviet front-line air army.In April 1951, the Bulgarian Air Force entered the jet era with the delivery of the first batch of Yak-23 fighters, followed not after long by the MiG-15.The hot period of the Cold War in the early and mid-1950s saw frequent night overflights by US aircraft ferrying CIA teams to be delivered by parachute to Bulgarian territory, and often to Romania and the southern parts of the Soviet Union.This tense situation required a constant high alert state, but the Bulgarian jet fighters and anti-aircraft artillery proved largely unsuccessful in countering the night intrusions. They were more successful, however, in countering the flights of high-altitude balloons with photo reconnaissance equipment launched by the US intelligence in an effort to gather information on the countries behind the Iron Curtain.The only occasion of a foreign aircraft being shot down was El Al Flight 402, a Super Constellation on a regular passenger flight between London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul. The ill-fated airliner, known as one of the greatest victims of the Cold War tensions, nervousness and distrust, was attacked by Bulgarian MiG-15 fighters on 27 June 1955 after it erroneously strayed off course into Bulgarian territory, killing all 58 people onboard.The formation of the Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact Treaty Organisation on May 14, 1956 heralded the beginning of a new era in the VVS' development. As one of the most enthusiastic Warsaw Pact members, Bulgaria was readily supplied with huge numbers of combat jets, anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missile systems and early warning radars in an effort to boost up the pact's southern flank defence.
Download or read book Klaxon written by Lindsay Peacock and published by Europe@war. This book was released on 2021-08-15 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1957 until 1991, the Strategic Air Command of the US Air Force (SAC) fought a war of deterrence. Every single day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thousands of men, women, and hundreds of aircraft were kept on alert, armed with nuclear weapons, ready to attack pre-determined targets on short notice.
Download or read book NATO s Air War for Kosovo written by Benjamin S. Lambeth and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2001-11-16 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a thorough appraisal of Operation Allied Force, NATO's 78-day air war to compel the president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, to end his campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The author sheds light both on the operation's strengths and on its most salient weaknesses. He outlines the key highlights of the air war and examines the various factors that interacted to induce Milosevic to capitulate when he did. He then explores air power's most critical accomplishments in Operation Allied Force as well as the problems that hindered the operation both in its planning and in its execution. Finally, he assesses Operation Allied Force from a political and strategic perspective, calling attention to those issues that are likely to have the greatest bearing on future military policymaking. The book concludes that the air war, although by no means the only factor responsible for the allies' victory, certainly set the stage for Milosevic's surrender by making it clear that he had little to gain by holding out. It concludes that in the end, Operation Allied Force's most noteworthy distinction may lie in the fact that the allies prevailed despite the myriad impediments they faced.
Download or read book Spomenik Monument Database written by Donald Niebyl and published by Fuel Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spomenik - the Serbo-Croat/Slovenian word for monument - refers to the pioneering abstract memorials built in Josip Tito's Yugoslavia between the 1960s and the 1990s, marking the horror of occupation by Axis forces and the triumph of their defeat during World War II. Through these imaginative creations, a forward-looking socialist society, free of ethnic tensions, was envisaged. This publication brings together more than 80 examples of these stunning brutalist monuments. Each has been extensively photographed and researched by the author to make this book the most comprehensive survey available of this obscure and fascinating architectural phenomenon. A fold-out map on the reverse of the dust jacket shows the exact location of each spomenik using GPS coordinates.
Download or read book Beacons in the Night written by Franklin Lindsay and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Franlin Lindsay (f. 1916) beretter om sine oplevelser som agent for OSS i Jugoslavien fra maj 1944
Download or read book Brothers in Berets written by Forrest L. Marion and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) special tactics community is a small, tight-knit brotherhood of proficient and committed warriors, consisting of special tactics officers and combat controllers, combat rescue officers and pararescuemen, and officer and enlisted special operations weathermen. These warriors have consistently proven themselves to be an invaluable force multiplier throughout history in conflicts around the world. This is their story.--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book The Guerrilla and how to Fight Him written by and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Kosovo Report written by Independent International Commission on Kosovo and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000-10-19 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The war in Kosovo was a turning point: NATO deployed its armed forces in war for the first time, and placed the controversial doctrine of 'humanitarian intervention' squarely in the world's eye. It was an armed intervention for the purpose of implementing Security Council resolutions-but without Security Council authorization.This report tries to answer a number of burning questions, such as why the international community was unable to act earlier and prevent the escalation of the conflict, as well as focusing on the capacity of the United Nations to act as global peacekeeper.The Commission recommends a new status for Kosovo, 'conditional independence', with the goal of lasting peace and security for Kosovo-and for the Balkan region in general. But many of the conslusions may be beneficially applied to conflicts the world-over.
Download or read book Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers written by United States. Department of State. Historical Office and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page 1044 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia written by Robert F. Baumann and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book War Women and Power written by Marie E. Berry and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rwanda and Bosnia both experienced mass violence in the early 1990s. Less than ten years later, Rwandans surprisingly elected the world's highest level of women to parliament. In Bosnia, women launched thousands of community organizations that became spaces for informal political participation. The political mobilization of women in both countries complicates the popular image of women as merely the victims and spoils of war. Through a close examination of these cases, Marie E. Berry unpacks the puzzling relationship between war and women's political mobilization. Drawing from over 260 interviews with women in both countries, she argues that war can reconfigure gendered power relations by precipitating demographic, economic, and cultural shifts. In the aftermath, however, many of the gains women made were set back. This book offers an entirely new view of women and war and includes concrete suggestions for policy makers, development organizations, and activists supporting women's rights.
Download or read book Block by Block written by William Glenn Robertson and published by www.Militarybookshop.CompanyUK. This book was released on 2003 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published by the Combat Studies Institute Press. The resulting anthology begins with a general overview of urban operations from ancient times to the midpoint of the twentieth century. It then details ten specific case studies of U.S., German, and Japanese operations in cities during World War II and ends with more recent Russian attempts to subdue Chechen fighters in Grozny and the Serbian siege of Sarajevo. Operations range across the spectrum from combat to humanitarian and disaster relief. Each chapter contains a narrative account of a designated operation, identifying and analyzing the lessons that remain relevant today.
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.”
