Showing titles in Air Forces

Until the end of the Cold War in 1990, the RAF had several major bases worldwide—largely in those areas where the service had been based during the inter-war years. In Cold War Boys Overseas, contributors recall their time at these foreign destinations. With almost half of RAF personnel serving abroad in the 1960s situated throughout Germany, the book starts its focus there with tales of monitoring the Soviet threat.

Visual Friendlies, Tally Target: Surges continues the story of the role of forward air controllers (JTACs) and Close Air Support (CAS), picking up in 2006 and continuing through 2013. This volume covers the evolution of Joint Fires through the colloquial "second phase" of the War on Terror—the "surges" of Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2010–2011. Vol. II recounts the evolution of air power during the rising counterinsurgencies, as well as the psychology and mental makeup of these exclusive tribes.

Leading the Way to Victory is the official history of the 60th Troop Carrier Group, featuring unpublished first-person accounts by participating veterans and expertly written by retired USAF Colonel Mark C. Vlahos, combat veteran and former Vice Wing Commander of 314th Airlift Wing at the Little Rock Air Force Base.

Experience the exciting combat tales of both Allied and Axis pilots around the world during World War II. Wings of War encompasses the World War II air war from late 1939 through 1945 and provides a chronological snapshot not only of famous and significant events from the global air war, but also of other lesser-known events that are equally thrilling and important. Over three dozen different Allied and Axis airplanes are featured, giving you a unique experience at the controls of a variety of World War II’s famed fighters, bombers, liaison, and jet airplanes.

Early Alaskan military and bush pilots navigated some of the highest and most rugged terrain on earth, taking off and landing on glaciers, mudflats, and active volcanoes. Although they were consistently portrayed by industry leaders and lawmakers alike as cowboys—and their planes compared to settlers’ covered wagons—the reality was that aviation catapulted Alaska onto a modern, global stage; the federal government subsidized aviation’s growth in the territory as part of the Cold War defense against the Soviet Union.

In the last days of World War II, a new weapon terrorized the United States Navy in the Pacific. Told from the perspective of the men who endured this horrifying tactic, At War with the Wind is the first book to recount in nail-biting detail what it was like to experience an attack by Japanese kamikazes. Born of desperation in the face of overwhelming material superiority, suicide attacks—by aircraft, submarines, small boats, and even manned rocket-boosted gliders—were capable of inflicting catastrophic damage, testing the resolve of officers and sailors as never before.

Captain Vijyant Thapar was twenty-two when he was martyred in the Kargil War, having fought bravely in the crucial battles of Tololing and Knoll. A fourth-generation army officer, Vijyant dreamt of serving his country even as a young boy. In this first-ever biography, we learn about his journey to join the Indian Military Academy and the experiences that shaped him into a fine officer.

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang first started appearing in real numbers in 1943, at the climax of the Allied campaign in World War II. Able to fly long ranges, it would go on to provide pivotal air support on D-Day, and by the end of the war, it would be responsible for nearly half of all enemy aircraft shot down. In The Fight in the Clouds, aviation writer and EAA Warbirds of America editor James P. Busha draws on interviews conducted with dozens of veteran P-51 pilots to trace the progress of war through the men’s exciting, chronologically organized experiences.

Durante los años previos a la Segunda Guerra Mundial, en una base aérea de Alabama, un grupo de pilotos renegados forjó una idea radical. ¿Qué pasaría si los bombardeos fueran tan precisos como para que las guerras pudieran librarse solamente desde el aire? ¿Podrían los brutales enfrentamientos entre ejércitos de tierra convertirse en cosa del pasado? Este libro cuenta lo que ocurrió cuando intentó llevarse a la práctica ese sueño.

World War I, also known in its time as the Great War or the War to End all Wars, was an unprecedented conflict in terms of its sheer scale. Before 1914, flying machines were objects of public curiosity. By 1918, all the major belligerents were fielding squadrons of fighting aircraft. Bombs were dropped on Paris in August 1914, and Zeppelins bombed Belgian forces as the Germans advanced on Liège. Zeppelin raids on Britain would continue for nearly four years. These raids and the attempts to stop them would be carried out at the cutting edge of new technology.

The Soviet-built MiG-15 swept-wing fighter startled the world when it was introduced into combat during the Korean War in the early 1950s. The West had no idea that Russia could produce such a capable fighter. Some 35 years later, former Marine aviator Paul Entrekin burst onto the North American Air Show circuit with the first civilian-owned MiG-15. His story tells of the myriad of challenges in obtaining, test-flying, licensing this first-of-its-kind air show aircraft. It's a walk down memory lane that includes some of the most well-known names in aviation.

The AC-130 gunship was quickly developed in 1968 to provide fire support for ground forces in Vietnam. Twenty-eight C-130 cargo aircraft were converted into AC-130s for night attack operations. The AC-130 was crude, ugly, ad hoc, and detested by many within the USAF...but it worked, and it worked well. Likewise, AC-130 crews were deemed unruly “biker gangs” but performed magnificently in every major US military operation from 1976 to 1995. Most of these combat operations were cloaked in secrecy, but records once classified for up to 20 years have now been opened.

Follow four tentmates lives as they join the military from their hometowns, train to fly a variety of planes, and travel to India, where they are stationed for three years of their lives. This book isn't about combat, but rather about humans and their struggles and accomplishments. Compiled from preserved documents and photographs, this book and the two before it recount the daily situation of being a C-47 pilot in World War II.

Antes da Segunda Guerra Mundial, muitos militares não acreditavam que o avião pudesse mudar os rumos de um conflito. Mas uma turma de aviadores idealistas, a Máfia dos Bombardeiros, levantou a questão: “E se o bombardeio de precisão destruísse pontos vitais na posição do inimigo e ainda tornasse a guerra menos letal?” Quando essa nova crença no poder aéreo é posta à prova, os resultados são muito diferentes do esperado. Mas a Máfia mantém sua convicção e a leva às últimas consequências na guerra no Pacífico.

On February 15, 1991, Captain Steve Phillis was leading his wingman, Lieutenant Rob Sweet, on their 30th combat mission of Desert Storm flying the A-10 Warthog. They were tasked with attacking Iraq's vaunted Medina Division of the Republican Guards - by far their most dangerous mission of the war. Near the end of their attacks, Rob was forced to eject from his aircraft and began a five-minute parachute ride down to the troops he and Steve had just finished bombing. Steve immediately sprang into action to save the life of his wingman.

In September 1946, the London Gazette published a dispatch from Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh C T Dowding that was titled simply: "The Battle of Britain". Written and submitted to the Air Ministry in 1941, this document became the very framework for the accepted Battle of Britain narrative that has been established across the following 80 years. In this work, Andy Saunders takes a critical look at Dowding's dispatch and analyzes the facts and details contained in that important document.

America's Few delves into the history of US Marine Corps aviation in World War II, following the feats of the Corps’ top-scoring aces in the skies over Guadalcanal. Marine Corps aviation began in 1915, functioning as a self-contained expeditionary force. During the interwar period, the support of USMC amphibious operations became a key element of Marine aviation doctrine, and the small force gradually grew. But in December 1941 came the rude awakening. Within hours of Pearl Harbor, heroic Marine aviators were battling the Japanese over Wake Island.

Book three of the Sea Stories takes listeners to entirely new dimensions of adventures in "Foreign Lands". We find our young Marine captain and family totally immersed in "British Society" during a two-year assignment as an exchange officer with the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. What they experience is professionally broadening and personally enriching while they are "On Her Majesty's Service".

It can be said that the subject of Rating Pilots and the Fleet Air Arm may only be of interest to avid aviation and naval historians. In this short but concise treatise, Alan Clifford provides an in-depth and detailed history, from the inter-service social and governmental politics to the practical reasons for the Rating Pilot schemes coming into being.

The mission seemed simple enough. Completely restore a 75-year-old historic DC-3 and fly her from Montana to France for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Starting with no volunteers and no money. In under a year. With a crew that had only a few hours of experience flying one. Ride along with author and pilot Bryan Douglass, the rest of the flight crew, the volunteers, paratroopers, World War II veterans, and others on this inspirational story of an impossible dream that almost didn’t come true.