Contributing to the debate about the role of airpower in guerrilla warfare, this book evaluates the development of the Rhodesian Air Force during the Second Chimurenga or Bush War (1966-1979). Airpower in irregular conflict is primarily effective at the tactical level because guerrilla warfare is not a purely military conflict. The Rhodesian Air Force was deployed in a war-winning versus a supporting role as a result of the shortage of manpower to deal with insurgency, and almost all units of the Rhodesian Security Forces depended on its tactical effectiveness. Technical challenges faced by the Air Force, combined with the rate of guerrilla infiltration and the misuse of airpower to bomb guerrilla bases in neighboring countries-some of them filled with untrained civilians-largely negated the success of airpower.

Here is the life story of the most successful fighter pilot of all time, with 352 air combat victories - who spent ten and a half years behind Soviet barbed wire, surviving prison uprisings, hunger strikes, resistance against the NKVD and forced labor. After being released he was still mentally and physically fit enough to fly F-86 jet fighters in the post - World War II German Air Force.\nThis photo album presents the stages of his life - a man who wished to become a doctor, but whose fate it was to become and remain a soldier. If Erich Hartmann were "only" the most successful fighter pilot of all time, that itself would be noteworthy. But its uniqueness would no doubt fade with time. What makes Erich Hartmann stand out from the crowd even by today\s standards is that personal integrity and unshakable character which helped him remain true to his convictions while enduring merciless burdens, and the courage to be tough when his convictions demanded it

With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Kiffin Yates Rockwell of Asheville, North Carolina, volunteered to fight for France. Initially serving with the French Foreign Legion as a soldier in the trenches, he soon became a founding member of the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron made up mostly of American volunteer pilots who served under the French flag before the U.S. entered the war. On May 19, 1916, he earned the distinction of being the first American pilot of the war to shoot down a German plane. He was killed during aerial combat on September 23, 1916, at age 24. This book covers Rockwell's early life and military service with the Lafayette Escadrille, the first ever American air combat unit and the precursor to the U.S. Air Force.

Bill Lambert: World War I Flying Ace is a detailed scholarly biography of a World War I pilot who ""lived at the edge of greatness, but could never get there."" From late March to mid-August 1918, William C. Lambert from Ironton, Ohio, flew as a fighter pilot for the R.A.F. in World War I. A surprising number of Americans went to Canada and joined the British flying services. Unfortunately, for the most part, their life stories have never been told. Several of them went on to have distinguished records. Unbeknownst to anyone, when Lambert left the war his twenty-two victories were the largest total among any American pilot in the war. By the Armistice, Lambert's total would be surpassed by Eddie Rickenbacker, the former race car driver from Columbus, Ohio, with twenty-six victories. Lambert survived the war and lived into his eighties; however, until late in life, he was unwilling to take advantage of his war record to achieve public acclaim. This book is an examination of the entire life of a distinct individual who took part in a war that destroyed individuality and served to define him for the rest of his life.

While the military use of drones has been the subject of much scrutiny, the use of drones for humanitarian purposes has so far received little attention. As the starting point for this study, it is argued that the prospect of using drones for humanitarian and other life-saving activities has produced an alternative discourse on drones, dedicated to developing and publicizing the endless possibilities that drones have for "doing good". Furthermore, it is suggested that the Good Drone narrative has been appropriated back into the drone warfare discourse, as a strategy to make war "more human". This book explores the role of the Good Drone as an organizing narrative for political projects, technology development and humanitarian action. Its contribution to the debate is to take stock of the multiple logics and rationales according to which drones are "good", with a primary objective to initiate a critical conversation about the political currency of "good". This study recognizes the many possibilities for the use of drones and takes these possibilities seriously by critically examining the difference the drones' functionalities can make, but also what difference the presence of drones themselves - as unmanned and flying objects - make. Discussed and analysed are the implications for the drone industry, user communities, and the areas of crisis where drones are deployed.

Trained as a photo reconnaissance unit, the U.S. Marine Observation Squadron 251 ended up serving as a fighter squadron for the duration of World War II, shooting down 32 Japanese aircraft. They earned several awards for outstanding performance, including the Presidential Unit Citation. This book is the first to cover the history of the VMO-251, one of the Marine Corps' longest-serving squadrons. The author traces their operations from the unit's activation on December 1, 1941, through Guadalcanal, the reduction of Rabaul and their missions over the Philippines in 1945.

This book gives a complete coverage of all the RAF airfields in World War in Britain, including all the RAF Fighter, Bomber, Coastal and Transport Command airfields and bases of the period. Each airfield is described with a short history, first-person accounts and information on airfield buildings, illustrated with photographs and maps, making this book a complete and unique single-volume illustrated reference book covering all of the RAF's frontline airfields in the UK during World War 2. General chapters also cover airfield construction and organisation, orders of battle for each command at notable points of the war and a significant part of the book is its tabular listings of RAF frontline airfields, including full details of location and user squadrons/units. Present-day usage of the airfields and the buildings is also covered. First-hand accounts by veterans of the four wartime Commands add a layer of compelling personal testimony to the book. The author originally published two books on RAF Fighter and Bomber airfields of World War 2 in the early 1990s, which are now out of print, but this book will contain significantly new text and illustrations as well as covering RAF Coastal and Transport Command for the first time.

Second World War fighter pilot Eric Carter is one of only four surviving members of a secret mission, code-named 'Force Benedict'. Sanctioned by Winston Churchill in 1941 Force Benedict was dispatched to defend Murmansk, the USSR's only port not under Nazi occupation. If Murmansk fell, Soviet resistance against the Nazis would be hard to sustain and Hitler would be able to turn all his forces on Britain...Force Benedict was under the command of New Zealand-born RAF Wing Commander Henry Neville Gynes Ramsbottom-Isherwood, who led two squadrons of Hurricane fighters, pilots and ground crew which were shipped to Russia in total secrecy on the first ever Arctic Convoy. They were told to defend Murmansk against the Germans 'at all costs'. 'We all reckoned the government thought we'd never survive' - but Eric Carter did, and was threatened with Court Martial if he talked about where he'd been or what he'd done. Now he reveals his experiences of seventy years ago in the hell on earth that was Murmansk, the largest city north of the Arctic Circle. It will also include previously unseen photos and documents, as well as exploring - for the first time - other intriguing aspects of Force Benedict.

After the Gulf War of 1990, No Fly Zones (NFZ) were established over northern and southern Iraq and the Tornado GR 1 force stepped up to operations over the southern NFZ. The Tornado GR 4 took responsibility for RAF combat air operations in Afghanistan from the Harrier force in 2009, and in 2011 was involved in missions against the Gaddafi regime in Libya. The unique multirole capabilities of the aircraft enabled it to support ground operations with the Raptor reconnaissance pod, Brimstone missiles and Paveway IV laser-guided bombs until withdrawal in 2014. The Tornado GR 4 was also used for operations over Iraq and Syria against the ISIL terrorist organisation. Intensive air operations were flown between 2014 and 2019, when the Tornado GR 4 was finally withdrawn from RAF Service. This volume, written by former RAF pilot Michael Napier, provides detailed first-hand accounts of the missions undertaken by the Tornado crews during the most recent conflicts over the Middle East and the Balkans.

For over 40 years NATO and Warsaw Pact aircraft faced each other across the Iron Curtain, or fought in proxy wars around the world. Illustrated with detailed artworks of combat aircraft and their markings, Aircraft of the Cold War 1945-1991: Identification Guide is a comprehensive study of the planes in service with NATO and the Warsaw Pact and their respective units from the end of World War II until the reunification of Germany. Arranged chronologically by theatre, the book gives a complete organizational breakdown of the units of both sides, including the units and aircraft used in the proxy wars fought in Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East and elsewhere as well as the 'frontline' in Germany. Packed with 250 colour profiles of every major type of combat aircraft from the era, Aircraft of the Cold War 1945-1991 is an essential reference guide for modellers, military historians and aircraft enthusiasts.

Beating its biplane rivals in a 1936 Reich Air Ministry design competition, the Arado Ar 196 provided the Kriegsmarine with possibly the best shipborne reconnaissance seaplane of World War II. Replacing the Heinkel He 60 biplane as the standard catapult-launched floatplane embarked on the Kriegsmarine's capital ships, the Ar 196 flew an assortment of combat missions during World War II, including coastal patrol, submarine hunting, light bombing, general reconnaissance and convoy escort sorties. The first vessel to take its Ar 196A-1s to sea was the pocket battleship Graf Spee, which embarked two in the autumn of 1939. The battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz could carry six Arados each, the battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst four and smaller pocket battleships and cruisers two. Shore-based aircraft were also operated from coastal ports on the Channel, Baltic, North Sea and Bay of Biscay coasts, as well as in the Balkans and Mediterranean. In this title, supported by an excellent selection of photographs and full-colour illustrations, Peter de Jong explores the history of the Arado Ar 196, detailing their development and assessing the combat capabilities of one of the last fighting seaplanes.

India is growing into one of Asia's most important military powers. Its defence budget has more than doubled in the past decade, and it imports more arms than anyone else in the world. But India is still seen as a land power focused on long, disputed and militarised borders with Pakistan and China rather than the global military force it was in the first half of the twentieth century under British rule. Is this changing? India is acquiring increasing numbers of key platforms - aircraft carriers, amphibious ships, refuelling tankers and transport aircraft - that are extending its reach to the Indian Ocean littoral and beyond. But most accounts of this build-up have been impressionistic and partial. Indian Power Projection assesses the strength, reach and purposes of India's maturing capabilities. It offers a systematic assessment of India's ability to conduct long-range airstrikes from land and sea, transport and convey airborne and amphibious forces, and develop the institutional and material enablers that turn platforms into capabilities. It draws extensively on the lessons of modern expeditionary operations, and considers how India's growing interests might shape where and how it uses these evolving capabilities in the future. This study finds that Indian power projection is in a nascent stage: limited in number, primarily of use against much-weaker adversaries, and deficient in some key supporting capabilities. India's defence posture will continue to be shaped by local threats, rather than distant interests. Indian leaders remain uncomfortable with talk of military intervention and expeditionary warfare, associating these with colonial and superpower excess. But as the country's power, interests and capabilities all grow, it is likely that India will once more find itself using military force beyond its land borders.

The B-24 Liberator remains to this day the world's most-produced heavy bomber and multi-engine aircraft, and the most produced military aircraft in US history, with almost 19,000 examples leaving the assembly lines of five plants. Through a broad range of photos gathered from around the world, this book chronicles the design, development, and wartime use of the iconic early models of the B-24-those featuring the so-called "glass nose"-from the assembly line to their use in the famous raid on the refineries at Ploesti, Romania, in 1943. The story of these iconic early WWII aircraft is told through carefully researched photos, many of which have never before been published, which are reproduced in remarkable clarity. Large clear photos, coupled with descriptive and informative captions, unlock the secrets of this aircraft. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

This instant Sunday Times bestseller tells the story of two fighter pilots whose remarkable encounter during the Second World War became the stuff of legend. Five days before Christmas 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a twenty-one-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. Suddenly a German Messerschmitt fighter pulled up on the bomber's tail - the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber with the squeeze of a trigger. This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day - the American - 2nd Lieutenant Charlie Brown and the German - 2nd Lieutenant Franz Stigler. A Higher Call follows both Charlie and Franz's harrowing missions and gives a dramatic account of the moment when they would stare across the frozen skies at one another. What happened between them, the American 8th Air Force would later classify as 'top secret'. It was an act that Franz could never mention or else face a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would seek out one another and reunite.

Unmanned combat air vehicles, or in common parlance 'drones', have become a prominent instrument in US efforts to counter an objective (and subjective) cross-border terrorist threat with lethal force. As a result, critical questions abound on the legitimacy of their use. In a series of multidisciplinary essays by scholars with an extensive knowledge of international norms, this book explores the question of legitimacy through the conceptual lenses of legality, morality and efficacy, it then closes with the consideration of a policy proposal aimed at incorporating all three indispensable elements. The importance of this inquiry cannot be overstated. Non-state actors fully understand that attacking the much more powerful state requires moving the conflict away from the traditional battlefield where they are at an enormous disadvantage. Those engaging in terrorism seek to goad the ruling government into an overreaction, or abuse of power, to trigger a destabilization via an erosion of its legitimacy. Thus defending the target of legitimacy"in this case, insuring the use of deadly force is constrained by valid limiting principles"represents an essential strategic interest. This book seeks to come to grips with the new reality of drone warfare by exploring if it can be used to preserve, rather than eat away at, legitimacy. After an extensive analysis of the three key parameters in twelve chapters, the practical proposition of establishing a 'Drone Court' is put forward and examined as a way of pursuing the goal of integrating these essential components to defend the citizenry and the legitimacy of the government at the same time.

This study explains how Westland dominated British helicopter production and why government funding and support failed to generate competitive "all-British" alternatives. In doing so, the book evaluates broader historiographic assumptions about the purported "failure" of british aircraft procurement during the early post-war period and considers the scope and limitations of licensed production as a government-mandated procurement strategy.

Six decades after World War II, we now know that the margin between Allied victory and defeat was often narrower than many realized. The decisive actions of leaders, generals and war heroes have been well documented, but less well known are the technological developments that made victory possible and laid the groundwork for postwar progress. Based on more than ten years of research, this book describes how American airmen became the best-outfitted aviators of the war, tracing the development of virtually every piece of personal equipment used by United States air forces. Drawing on original sources including formerly classified documents, the author details the myriad types of respirator equipment, parachutes, body armour, pressure suits and other flying and survival gear that were instrumental in making U.S. pilots and air crews effective. Personal anecdotes bring to life the design and testing of combat flight equipment. More than 160 photographs are included, most published here for the first time.

Today, strategic aerial bombardments of urban areas that harm civilians, at times intentionally, are becoming increasingly common in global conflicts. This book reveals the history of these tactics as employed by nations that initiated aerial bombardments of civilians after World War I and during World War II. As one of the major symbols of German suffering, the Allied bombing left a strong imprint on German society. Bas von Benda-Beckmann explores how German historical accounts reflected debates on postwar identity and looks at whether the history of the air war forms a counternarrative against the idea of German collective guilt. Provocative and unflinching, this study offers a valuable contribution to German historiography.

Herman Knell was nineteen and living in Wurtzburg in March of 1945 when hundreds of Allied planes arrived overhead, unleashing a torrent of bombs on the city. Wurtzburg's tightly packed medieval housing exploded in a firestorm, killing six thousand people in one night and destroying 92 percent of the city's structures. Despite the fact that Wurtzburg had no strategic value, the city emerged from World War II second only to Dresden in material destruction inflicted from the air. The experience led Knell to years of research on the history, development, and effects of the strategy of area bombing.To Destroy a City is the result of the author's long and unrelenting investigation. His analysis of this form of warfare, which reached its zenith during World War II, covers the history and the development of wide-area bombing since 1914, examines its wartime effectiveness and the consequences. But the extra dimension that Knell's book offers is his firsthand experience of the tension, fear, tentative defiance, and, finally, utter catastrophe of being on the receiving end of overwhelming air power. For Americans, who fortunately did not experience bombing during the war, this is essential reading.

From the bitter temperatures of the Arctic to the sweltering jungles of the South Pacific, Army Air Forces personnel flew countless missions in extreme conditions throughout World War II. Providing suitable clothing to various crewmen aboard many different types of aircraft proved a monumental task. This volume documents the development, testing, manufacture, procurement, and utilization of flying clothing and accessories worn by American airmen during their many hard-fought campaigns around the world between 1941 and 1945. Among the garments explored are various types of flight suits - including heavy winter shearling suits and electrically heated suits - flight jackets, flotation garments, headgear, handwear, footwear, and even underwear. With appendices that include contemporary military brochures detailing the care and maintenance of flight clothing and tips on the preservation of vintage flight apparel and accessories, this study provides a thorough exploration of a rarely examined aspect of the military during World War II.

The Grumman J2F Duck formed the backbone of America's over water utility squadrons from 1934 until beyond WWII, setting various aviation records during this service. A single-engine amphibious aircraft (also produced by Columbia Aircraft), the Duck saw service with the US Navy, Marine Corps, Army Air Force, and Coast Guard in a variety of roles including, reconnaissance, air-sea rescue, scouting/observation, and more. This volume is profusely illustrated with scarce archival photographs from diverse collections, including previously unpublished images. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

This work examines the evolution of the RAF's operational requirements for its home defence air force - for bombers to mount a deterrent counter offensive and for fighters to provide direct defence of Britain. It discusses the management processes, policies and decisions relevant to operational requirements on the basis of a detailed study of Air Ministry papers of the time. By tracing the development of operational requirements, the author exposes the thinking behind the RAF's quest for effective fighter and bomber aircraft. He describes the ideas and concepts of air warfare that were adopted in the 1920s, and shows how these evolved into the Air Staff's requirements for the aircraft which the RAF entered and fought in World War II.

The first of two volumes of the classified Air Historical Branch study of Fighter Command and the Air Defence of the United Kingdom. It covers pre-war expansion of the Command, the creation of the first integrated air defence system, and an account of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain.

A fully illustrated study into the extraordinary Convair B-36 during the Cold War. Conceived during 1941 in case Germany occupied Britain, when US bombers would then have insufficient range to retaliate, the B-36 was to be primarily a '10,000-mile bomber' with heavy defensive armament, six engines and a performance that would prevent interception by fighters. Although rapid developments in jet engine and high-speed airframe technology quickly made it obsolescent, the B-36 took part in many important nuclear test programmes. The aircraft also provided the US nuclear deterrent until the faster B-52 became available in 1955. It was one of the first aircraft to use substantial amounts of magnesium in its structure, leading to the bomber's 'Magnesium Overcast' nickname. It earned many superlatives due to the size and complexity of its structure, which used 27 miles of wiring, had a wingspan longer than the Wright brothers' first flight, equivalent engine power to 400 cars, the same internal capacity as three five-room houses and 27,000 gallons of internal fuel - enough to propel a car around the world 18 times. Much was made of the fact that the wing was deep enough to allow engineers to enter it and maintain the engines in flight. B-36s continued in the bomber and reconnaissance role until their retirement in February 1959 following 11 years in SAC. Convair employees were invited to suggest names for the giant aircraft, eliciting suggestions such as 'King Kong Bomber', 'Condor', 'Texan' and 'Unbelievable', but the most popular was 'Peacemaker'. Oddly, objections from religious groups deterred the USAF from ever adopting it officially. This fully illustrated volume includes first-hand accounts, original photographs and up to 30 profile artworks depicting in detail the complexity of this superlative aircraft.