Download or read book Air Force Blue the RAF in World War Two written by Patrick Bishop and published by William Collins. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 1 April 2018, the Royal Air Force will be a hundred years old - a short life by military standards but an extraordinarily important and eventful one. From the start it was special, standing sometimes awkwardly but always proudly a little apart from the existing services. It was a product of the modern age, whose fortunes depended on ever-more sophisticated machines and the right calibre of men to fly them and to keep them airborne. Its achievements between 1939 and 1945 - when it was Britain's last line of defence and the spearhead of its counter-attack, were central to the entire war effort. During these years, one in four of those in uniform wore air force blue and the ethos of the RAF was indistinguishable from the spirit of the nation. "Air Force Blue" tells personal stories of those who served, using the letters, diaries and memoirs of the participants to create a true picture of what it was like to be a pilot, a navigator, a gunner, a fitter or a WAAF ops room clerk.
Download or read book Air Force Blue The RAF in World War Two Spearhead of Victory written by Patrick Bishop and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2017-09-21 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2018 the RAF is one hundred years old. In his new book, destined to be a classic, Patrick Bishop examines the high point of its existence – the Second World War, when the Air Force saved the nation from defeat then led the advance to victory. A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Download or read book Rearming the RAF for the Second World War written by Adrian Phillips and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2022-07-28 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the RAF rearmed to meet the growing threat from Nazi Germany's remorseless expansion in the late 1930s, it faced immense challenges. It had to manage a huge increase in size as well as mastering rapid advances in aviation technology. To protect Britain from attack, the RAF's commanders had to choose the right strategy and the right balance in its forces. The choices had to be made in peacetime with no guidance from combat experience. These visions then had to be translated into practical reality. A shifting cast of government ministers, civil servants and industrialists with their own financial, political and military agendas brought further dynamics into play. The RAF's readiness for war was crucial to Britain's ability to respond to Nazi aggression before war broke out and when it did, the RAF's rearmament was put to the acid test of battle. Adrian Phillips uses the penetrating grasp of how top level decisions are made that he honed in his inside accounts of the abdication crisis and appeasement, to dissect the process which shaped the RAF of 1940. He looks beyond the familiar legends of the Battle of Britain and explores in depth the successes and failures of a vital element in British preparations for war.
Download or read book Eyewitness RAF written by James Goulty and published by Pen and Sword Aviation. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much has been written about the Royal Air Force during the Second World Warmemoirs, biographies, histories of Fighter and Bomber commands, technical studies of the aircraft, accounts of individual operations and exploits but few books have attempted to take the reader on a journey through basic training and active service as air or ground crew and eventual demobilization at the end of the war. That is the aim of James Goultys Eyewitness RAF. Using a vivid selection of testimony from men and women, he offers a direct insight into every aspect of wartime life in the service. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the individuals experience of the RAF the preparations for flying, flying itself, the daily routines of an air base, time on leave, and the issues of discipline, morale and motivation. A particularly graphic section describes, in the words of the men themselves, what it felt like to go on operations and the impact of casualties airmen who were killed, injured or taken prisoner. A fascinating varied inside view of the RAF emerges which is perhaps less heroic and glamorous than the image created by some postwar accounts, but it gives readers today a much more realistic appreciation of the whole gamut of life in the RAF seventy years ago.
Download or read book The Right of the Line written by John Terraine and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 861 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditionally, the right of the line is the vanguard, the place of honour and greatest danger in battle. In this history of the Royal Air Force during the European War of 1939-45, John Terraine shows how the RAF, which in 1939 was small and inadequate for the task it was called upon to perform had, by the end of the war, taken up its proper position. He describes the build-up to war, the early tests in France and at Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, the RAF in North Africa and the Mediterranean, the strategic air offensive over Germany and eventual victory in Europe.His best book yet The TimesJohn Terraine is a fine historian but he also believes that history should be exciting and readable The Listener
Download or read book Sisters in Arms written by Jeremy A. Crang and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jeremy Crang provides a compelling new history of women who served with the British armed forces during the Second World War.
Download or read book Big Week written by James Holland and published by Atlantic Monthly Press. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of World War II’s Operation Argument in which US and British air forces led a series of raids against Nazi Germany in 1944. During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces based in Britain and Italy launched their first round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. Their goal: to smash the main factories and production centers of the Luftwaffe while also drawing German planes into an aerial battle of attrition to neutralize the Luftwaffe as a fighting force prior to the cross-channel invasion, planned for a few months later. Officially called Operation Argument, this aerial offensive quickly became known as “Big Week,” and it was one of the turning-point engagements of World War II. In Big Week, acclaimed World War II historian James Holland chronicles the massive air battle through the experiences of those who lived and died during it. Prior to Big Week, the air forces on both sides were in crisis. Allied raids into Germany were being decimated, but German resources—fuel and pilots—were strained to the breaking point. Ultimately new Allied aircraft—especially the American long-range P-51 Mustang—and superior tactics won out during Big Week. Through interviews, oral histories, diaries, and official records, Holland follows the fortunes of pilots, crew, and civilians on both sides, taking readers from command headquarters to fighter cockpits to anti-aircraft positions and civilian chaos on the ground, vividly recreating the campaign as it was conceived and unfolded. In the end, the six days of intense air battles largely cleared the skies of enemy aircraft when the invasion took place on June 6, 1944—D-Day. Big Week is both an original contribution to WWII literature and a brilliant piece of narrative history, recapturing a largely forgotten campaign that was one of the most critically important periods of the entire war. Praise for Big Week An Amazon Best Book of the Year “With the aid of diaries, memoirs and his own interviews, Mr. Holland gives a detailed, crewman’s-eye view of combat from inside the British, American and German aircraft during the months leading up to Big Week and during the week itself. For those hoping for war-movie stuff, rest assured that the enemy fighters do come in at 6 o’clock, the guns do hammer, the sun does glint and the ‘chutes do blossom in the sky. Still it’s a serious and important story as well as a dramatic one, and Mr. Holland tells it with verve and authority.” —David A. Price, Wall Street Journal “Highly detailed. . . . The interplay of personal stories with the broader strategic picture makes this book especially illuminating. . . . A fascinating must-read for World War II aficionados.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Download or read book Jet Man written by Duncan Campbell-Smith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Frank Whittle – RAF pilot, mathematician of genius, inventor of the jet engine and British hero. 'Wonderful' David Edgerton, TLS 'A fascinating account' Aeroplane Monthly 'Casts new light on the intense, heroic character of Frank Whittle' Leo McKinstry '[A] thorough dissection of the evolution of the jet engine... I recommend this mighty tome unreservedly' Journal of Aeronautical History 'A long overdue corrective of an extraordinary man' James Hamilton-Paterson 'A fine, deeply researched book' Military History Monthly In 1938, a thirty-one-year-old RAF pilot and engineer named Frank Whittle – given special leave to pursue his own startlingly original concept of flight – presented the Air Ministry with a written proposal for a revolutionary jet-powered fighter aircraft. A ready response might have changed the course of history, but Whittle got no reply. In this gripping and insightful biography, Duncan Campbell-Smith charts Whittle's success at building a pre-war jet engine against all the odds – and tracks his desperate struggle to have it launched into active service against Hitler's Luftwaffe. It arrived too late – but nonetheless transformed the future of aviation.
Download or read book Staging Loss written by Michael Pinchbeck and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-11 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book locates and critically theorises an emerging field of twenty-first century theatre practice concerned, either thematically, methodologically, or formally, with acts of commemoration and the commemorative. With notions of memorial, celebration, temporality and remembrance at its heart, and as a timely topic for debate, this book asks how theatre and performance intersects with commemorative acts or rituals in contemporary theatre and performance practice. It considers the (re)performance of history, commemoration as a form of, or performance of, ritual, performance as memorial, performance as eulogy and eulogy as performance. It asks where personal acts of remembrance merge with public or political acts of remembrance, where the boundary between the commemorative and the performative might lie, and how it might be blurred, broken or questioned. It explores how we might remake the past in the present, to consider not just how performance commemorates but how commemoration performs.
Download or read book Churchill Master and Commander written by Anthony Tucker-Jones and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Masterful research, impeccable detail, with a beautifully flowing narrative of which Churchill himself would have been proud.' - Professor Peter Caddick-Adams From his earliest days Winston Churchill was an extreme risk taker and he carried this into adulthood. Today he is widely hailed as Britain's greatest wartime leader and politician. Deep down though, he was foremost a warlord. Just like his ally Stalin, and his arch enemies Hitler and Mussolini, Churchill could not help himself and insisted on personally directing the strategic conduct of World War II. For better or worse he insisted on being political master and military commander. Again like his wartime contemporaries, he had a habit of not heeding the advice of his generals. The results of this were disasters in Norway, North Africa, Greece and Crete during 1940–41. His fruitless Dodecanese campaign in 1943 also ended in defeat. Churchill's pig-headedness over supporting the Italian campaign in defiance of the Riviera landings culminated in him threatening to resign and bring down the British Government. Yet on occasions he got it just right: his refusal to surrender in 1940, the British miracle at Dunkirk and victory in the Battle of Britain, showed that he was a much-needed decisive leader. Nor did he shy away from difficult decisions, such as the destruction of the French Fleet to prevent it falling into German hands and his subsequent war against Vichy France. In this fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Anthony Tucker-Jones explores the record of Winston Churchill as a military commander, assessing how the military experiences of his formative years shaped him for the difficult military decisions he took in office. This book assesses his choices in the some of the most controversial and high-profile campaigns of World War II, and how in high office his decision making was both right and wrong.
Download or read book Enemy Sighted written by Dilip Amin and published by Air World. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enemy Sighted is the story of the world’s first integrated air defense system and how the coalition of Hurricanes and Spitfires, Fighter Command’s Operations Rooms and Sector Stations, Radar Stations, Observer Corps posts, anti-aircraft gun and searchlight batteries, and balloon barrages, stood resolutely in the way of Operation Seelöwe, Hitler’s plan for invading Britain in the Summer of 1940. Dilip Amin provides a fascinating insight into their development and eventual operationalization. The system provided a recognized air picture, giving everyone the same information at the same time, much like computers linked through the internet do today, except, in 1939 there was no computer and there was no internet! Fundamental to its telling is the 11 Group Operations Room, today referred to as the Battle of Britain Bunker, and the people who worked there, deep below RAF Uxbridge. It was after visiting the Bunker that Churchill first uttered the immortal words, ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’. Hidden underground, with its large map table and squadron display boards, and balloon and weather states, it is preserved as it was on 15 September 1940, the date celebrated as Battle of Britain Day. Dilip Amin describes how the Bunker operated, transporting the reader back to the time of the Battle of France and the final evacuation from Dunkirk. He guides the reader through the Battle of Britain, examining in detail, the events of 15 September, as seen by those in the Bunker and the combat reports of those flying the Hurricanes and Spitfires on that tumultuous day. Finally, the book provides an insight into how the Bunker operated to protect Britain during the Blitz; support the exploratory raid on Dieppe; shield the troops landing in Normandy; and defend against Hitler’s V1 and V2 Vengeance Weapons. Enemy Sighted provides a compelling insight into the remarkable history of a secret Operations Room, that was pivotal within a world leading air defense system, and without which, an Allied victory in the Second World War would have been far from certain.
Download or read book Eagles of the RAF written by Philip D. Caine and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1994-07 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U.S. citizens fought and died in WW II long before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Among them were the pilots of the Eagle Squadrons, three fighter squadrons of Britain's Royal Air Force manned by young U.S. flyers. This book tells how the Eagle squadrons were formed and summarizes the history of the units and evaluates their deeds, motivations, and contributions. Draws on interviews from more than 35 surviving Eagles, their letters and memoirs, and official records. Depicts their daily lives along with special heroes and amazing sacrifices. "An important contribution to the study of American involvement in WWII. Highly recommended."
Download or read book The Hardest Victory written by Denis Richards and published by . This book was released on 1995-10-05 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book They Fly for Victory written by Keith Ayling and published by . This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a new release of the original 1944 edition.
Download or read book The Men Who Flew the Heavy Bombers written by Martin W. Bowman and published by Pen and Sword Aviation. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin Bowman’s considerable experience as a military historian has spanned over forty years, during which time he has amassed a wealth of material on the participation by RAF and Commonwealth and US 8th and 15th Air Force crews in the series of raids on the cities and oil transportation and industrial targets in the Third Reich, culminating in ‘Round-the-Clock’ bombing by the RAF, operating at night on the largely forgotten Stirling, the gamely Halifax and ultimately the more successful Lancaster, and the US 8th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator crews by day on a target list so long and wide ranging that it defies the imagination. Hundreds of hours of painstaking and fact-finding research and interviews and correspondence with numerous airmen and women and their relatives, in Britain, America and beyond has been woven into a highly readable and emotional outpouring of life and death in combat over the Third Reich as the men of the RAF and Commonwealth and American air forces describe in their own words the compelling, gripping and thought-provoking narrative of the Combined Bomber Offensive in World War Two, which resulted from the RAF nocturnal onslaught and the American unescorted precision attacks on targets throughout the Reich until the P-51 Mustang escort fighters enabled the 8th to assume the mantle of the leading bombing partner in theatre. February and March 1945 saw the most intense bombing destruction when Nazi defences were minimal or absent and the war was all but over. Final victory in May 1945 came at a high price indeed. Half of the U.S. Army Air Forces' casualties in World War II were suffered by Eighth Air Force, with in excess of 47,000 casualties, with more than 26,000 dead. RAF Bomber Command lost 55,573 men killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew and 8,403 wounded in action while 9,838 became prisoners of war. RAF and American bomber crews could, therefore be forgiven for thinking they had won a pyrrhic victory; one that had taken such a heavy toll that negated any true sense of achievement, though, if nothing else, the human effort spent by RAF Bomber Command and the Eighth Air Force did pave the way for the Soviet victory in the east.
Download or read book RAF Bomber Command in World War II written by Denis Richards and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While Churchill acknowledged the vital contribution of RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War, it has recently come under fire from a whole generation of historians. They claim that the RAF offensive against Germany was immoral because so many civilians were killed, and wasteful because so many attacks were not on specific military targets. In this powerful book Denis Richards describes the Command's difficulties and failures, but also redresses the balance by making clear the magnitude of its achievements. His fascinating account dramatically re-creates the gruesome and protracted battle fought for almost five and half years in the night skies, in which over half the aircrew became casualties. Truly, it was 'the Hardest Victory'. Book jacket.
Download or read book Memoir Of RAF Fighter Pilot written by Calista Digerolamo and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-14 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Battle of Britain, during World War II, the successful defense of Great Britain against unremitting and destructive air raids conducted by the German air force (Luftwaffe) from July through September 1940, after the fall of France. Victory for the Luftwaffe in the air battle would have exposed Great Britain to invasion by the German army, which was then in control of the ports of France only a few miles away across the English Channel. In the event, the battle was won by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command, whose victory not only blocked the possibility of invasion but also created the conditions for Great Britain's survival, for the extension of the war, and for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. This is a history book based on a memoir of the RAF fighter-machine pilot found after his death, documenting the events of the battle in England, and the same level a look at the change in war years.
