Download or read book Bomber Offensive written by Arthur Harris and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir Arthur Harris - Bomber Harris - remains the target of criticism and vilification by many, while others believe the contribution he and his men made to victory is grossly undervalued. He led the men of Bomber Command in the face of appalling casualties, had fierce disagreements with higher authority and enjoyed a complicated relationship with Winston Churchill. Written soon after the close of World War 2, this collection of Sir Arthur Harris's memoirs reveals the man behind the Allied bombing offensive that culminated in the destruction of the Nazi war machine but also many beautiful cities, including Dresden.
Download or read book The Nuremberg Raid written by Martin Middlebrook and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2009-06-25 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thorough history of the RAF Bomber Command attack on the German city during World War II, by the author of The First Day on the Somme. This book describes one twenty-four-hour period in the Allied Strategic Bomber Offensive in the greatest possible detail. Author Martin Middlebrook sets the scene by outlining the course of the bombing war from 1939 to the night of the Nuremberg raid, the characters and aims of the British bombing leaders, and the composition of the opposing Bomber Command and German night fighter forces. The aim of the Nuremberg raid was not unlike many hundreds of other Royal Air Force missions but, due to the difficulties and dangers of the enemy defenses and weather plus bad luck, it went horribly wrong. The result was so notorious that it became a turning point in the campaign. The target, the symbolic Nazi rally city of Nuremberg, was only lightly damaged, and 96 out of 779 bombers went missing. Middlebrook recreates the events of the fateful night in astonishing detail. The result is a meticulous, dramatic, and often controversial account. It is also a moving tribute to the bravery of the RAF bomber crews and their adversaries. Praise for The Nuremberg Raid “Employing hundreds of eyewitness accounts, he shows the raid from the point of view of the German defenses and the civilians on the ground. Factual and analytical, this is a portrait of mechanized warfare at the level of personal experience.” —Simon Mawer, Wall Street Journal
Download or read book Command Of The Air written by General Giulio Douhet and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.
Download or read book Fire and Fury written by Randall Hansen and published by Anchor Canada. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Bestseller An enlightening and utterly convincing re-examination of the allied aerial bombing campaign and of civilian German suffering during World War II–an essential addition to our understanding of world history. During the Second World War, Allied air forces dropped nearly two million tons of bombs on Germany, destroying some 60 cities, killing more than half a million German citizens, and leaving 80,000 pilots dead. Much of the bombing was carried out against the expressed demands of the Allied military leadership. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly. Focusing on the crucial period from 1942 to 1945, and using a compelling narrative approach, Fire and Fury tells the story of the American and British bombing campaign through the eyes of those involved: military and civilian command in America, Britain, and Germany, aircrew in the sky, and civilians on the ground. Acclaimed historian Randall Hansen shows that the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Arthur Harris, was wedded to an outdated strategy whose success had never been proven; how area bombing not only failed to win the war, it probably prolonged it; and that the US campaign, which was driven by a particularly American fusion of optimism and morality, played an important and largely unrecognized role in delivering Allied victory.
Download or read book The Bombers and the Bombed written by Richard Overy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An essential part of the literature of World War II.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post From acclaimed World War II historian Richard Overy comes this startling new history of the controversial Allied bombing war against Germany and German-occupied Europe. In the fullest account yet of the campaign and its consequences, Overy assesses not just the bombing strategies and pattern of operations, but also how the bombed communities coped with the devastation. This book presents a unique history of the bombing offensive from below as well as from above, and engages with moral questions that still resonate today.
Download or read book Bombing Nazi Germany written by Wayne Vansant and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVIn Bombing Nazi Germany, renowned graphic novel author and artist Wayne Vansant profiles the dramatic joint American-British Allied air war against Nazi Germany throughout Europe during World War II. Meticulously researched, illustrated, and written with the same unmatched quality of Vansant’s Normandy and Gettysburg (also from Zenith Press), Bombing Nazi Germany tells the story of the first and second generations of airmen, soldiers, and politicians from both sides who sought to bomb the enemy into submission. Vansant traces the development of the wildly controversial Strategic Bombing doctrine in the 1920s and 1930s, the early stages of WWII and the dominance of the German Luftwaffe, and the eventual 1942 involvement of the United States’ 8th Air Force and its vast fleet of B-17 and B-24 bombers. Beautifully detailed with maps, schematics, and charts, Bombing Nazi Germany also explores how industry and science aided the Allied air forces in these violent fights, as both the Americans and British made crucial advancements in air detection and evasion methods. Finally, Vansant illustrates the lesser-known perspective of the brave German pilots five miles above the earth who fought not to protect Hitler’s Reich, but their homes and families. As entertaining as it is educational, Bombing Nazi Germany continues Wayne Vansant’s tradition of brilliant nonfiction graphic history./div
Download or read book The Bomber Mafia written by Malcolm Gladwell and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “truly compelling” (Good Morning America) New York Times bestseller that explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war—from the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History. In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?” Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.
Download or read book The Bombing War written by Richard Overy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-09-26 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ultimate history of the Blitz and bombing in the Second World War, from Wolfson Prize-winning historian and author Richard Overy The use of massive fleets of bombers to kill and terrorize civilians was an aspect of the Second World War which continues to challenge the idea that Allies specifically fought a 'moral' war. For Britain, bombing became perhaps its principal contribution to the fighting as, night after night, exceptionally brave men flew over occupied Europe destroying its cities. The Bombing War radically overhauls our understanding of the War. It is the first book to examine seriously not just the most well-known parts of the campaign, but the significance of bombing on many other fronts - the German use of bombers on the Eastern Front for example (as well as much newly discovered material on the more familiar 'Blitz' on Britain), or the Allied campaigns against Italian cities. The result is the author's masterpiece - a rich, gripping, picture of the Second World War and the terrible military, technological and ethical issues that relentlessly drove all its participants into an abyss. Reviews: 'Magnificent ... must now be regarded as the standard work on the bombing war ... It is probably the most important book published on the history of he second world war this century' Richard J Evans, Guardian 'Monumental ... this is a major contribution to one of the most controversial aspects of the Second World War ... full of new detail and perspectives ... hugely impressive' James Holland, Literary Review 'This tremendous book does what the war it describes signally failed to do. With a well-thought-out strategy and precision, it delivers maximum force on its objectives ... The result is a masterpiece of the historian's art' The Times 'It is unlikely that a work of this scale, scope and merit will be surpassed' Times Higher Education 'What distinguishes Mr Overy's account of the bombing war from lesser efforts is the wealth of narrative detail and analytical rigour that he brings to bear' Economist 'Excellent ... Overy is never less than an erudite and clear-eyed guide whose research is impeccable and whose conclusions appear sensible and convincing even when they run against the established trends' Financial Times 'Hard to surpass. If you want to know how bombing worked, what it did and what it meant, this is the book to read' Times Literary Supplement About the author: Richard Overy is the author of a series of remarkable books on the Second World War and the wider disasters of the twentieth century. The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia won both the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize. He is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. Penguin publishes 1939: Countdown to War, The Morbid Age, Russia's War, Interrogations, The Battle of Britain and The Dictators. He lives in London.
Download or read book The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany written by Sir Charles Kingsley Webster and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Concise History of the U S Air Force written by Stephen Lee McFarland and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1997 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.
Download or read book No Silent Night written by Leo Barron and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Christmas morning, 1944, there was little reason to celebrate.… As the Battle of the Bulge raged, a small force of American solders—including the famed 101st Airborne division, tank destroyer crews, engineers, and artillerymen—was completely surrounded by Hitler’s armies in the Belgian town of Bastogne. Taking the town was imperative to Hitler’s desperate plan to drive back the Allies and turn the tide of the war. The attack would come just before dawn. As the outnumbered, undersupplied Americans gathered in church for services or shivered in their snow-covered foxholes on the fringes of the front lines, freshly reinforced German forces of men and tanks attacked. The battle was up close and personal, with the cold, exhausted soldiers of both armies fighting for every square foot of frozen earth. In the end, the Allied forces would hold the town of Bastogne, with the hard-won victory boosting morale and sounding the death-knell for Hitler’s Third Reich. After this battle, the Nazis would never go on the offensive again. Featuring interviews with the soldiers who were there, as well as never-before-seen or translated documents, No Silent Night is a compelling chronicle of one day that changed the course of the war—and the world. INCLUDES NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS AND MAPS
Download or read book Air Force Combat Units of World War II written by Maurer Maurer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1961 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bomber Command written by Max Hastings and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This award-winning classic of WWII military history chronicles the Royal Air Force’s bombing campaign against Germany. RAF Bomber Command’s air offensive against the cities of Nazi Germany was one of the most epic campaigns of World War II. The struggle began meekly in 1939 with only a few aircraft—Whitleys, Hampdens, and Wellingtons—flying blindly through the night on their ill-conceived bombing runs. It ended six years later with 1,600 Lancasters, Halifaxes, and Mosquitoes, equipped with the best of British wartime technology, blazing whole German cities in a single night. In Bomber Command, originally published to critical acclaim in the UK, famed British military historian Sir Max Hastings offers a captivating analysis of the strategy and decision-making behind one of World War II’s most violent episodes. With firsthand descriptions of the experiences of aircrew from 1939 to 1945—based on one hundred interviews with veterans—and a harrowing narrative of the experiences of Germans on the ground during the September 1944 bombing of Darmstadt, Bomber Command is widely recognized as a classic account of one of the bloodiest campaigns in World War II history. Winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize
Download or read book Carl A Spaatz and the Air War in Europe written by Richard G. Davis and published by Department of the Air Force. This book was released on 1993 with total page 840 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers the first detailed review of Carl A. Spaatz as a commander. Examines how the highest ranking U.S. airman in the European Theater of Operations of World War II viewed the war, worked with the British, and wielded the formidable air power at his disposal. Identifies specifically those aspects of his leadership that proved indispensable to the Allied Victory over Nazi Germany. Chapters: Carrying the Flame: From West Point to London, 1891-1942; Tempering the Blade: The North African Campaign, 1942-1943; Mediterranean Interlude: From Pantelleria to London, 1943; The Point of the Blade: Strategic Bombing and the Cross-Channel Invasion, 1944; and The Mortal Blow: From Normandy to Berlin, 1944-1945. Maps, charts and b & w photos.
Download or read book Big Week written by James Holland and published by Random House. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'James Holland is a master' BBC History It was to be the battle to end the air war once and for all. During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces launched their first-ever round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. The aim was to smash the main factories and production centres of the Luftwaffe and at the same time draw the German fighter force up into the air and into battle. Big Week is the knife-edge story of bomber against flak gun and fighter, but also, crucially, fighter against fighter. Following the fortunes of pilots and aircrew from both sides, this is a blistering narrative of one of the most critical periods of the entire war. Big Week was the largest air battle ever witnessed, but it has been largely forgotten – until now.
Download or read book The Bomber War written by Robin Neillands and published by . This book was released on 2004-06-07 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robin Neillands' studies every aspect of the airborne fight against Germany in WW2. He looks at the strengths and fundamental flaws in doctrine; the technical difficulties and developments; and the day-by-day, night-by-night endurance of the crews, flying to the limit in discomfort and danger. The book includes oral history in the shape of personal accounts not only of the British but of Americans, Australians, Canadians and other Allied fliers, and also of German aircrews and civilians.
Download or read book Nachtjagd written by Theo Boiten and published by Crowood Press (UK). This book was released on 1997 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NachtjagdBoitenSubtitled: The Night Fighter Versus Bomber War Over the Third Reich 1939-45. Of the 7,953 Bomber Command aircraft lost on night operations during WWII, an estimated 5,833 fell victim to Luftwaffe night fighters. This volume traces the parallel developments in RAF night bombing and the Luftwaffes night fighting capability using archive material and interviews with surviving aircrew from both sides.Hdbd., 7 3/4x 1, 24 pgs., 17 bandw ill.
