Over and Above is Gurdon’s first and best book, repeatedly reprinted for two decades, variously titled Winged Warriors or Wings of Death. Billed as a novel, it is not so much that as a fictionalised account of his own service flying career, with names changed, incidents rearranged. True, it tells of ‘exciting raids over enemy lines and towns, desperate fights against fearful odds, chivalry shown to an unchivalrous foe...’  but the narrative turns darker as men become wearier, new comrades arrive and are killed, and those who remain try to hold onto meaning in increasingly unintelligible circumstances, a mirror to Gurdon’s own experiences. Written in the style of the era and by and for a class which put great store in maintaining a slangy, backslapping cheerfulness, no matter how grim things were, with chums wishing each other ‘beaucoup Huns’ before embarking on a ‘show’ in ‘beastly’ weather, this book is a classic to rank with Winged Victory by V M Yeates, and which should never have been out of print. This new edition retains exactly the original script but has been updated with an introduction by John Gurdon’s granddaughter Camilla Jane Gurdon Blakeley and an extended illustrated appendix by renowned historian Norman Franks.

Fighter pilot Butch O'Hare became one of America's heroes in 1942 when he saved the carrier Lexington in what has been called the most daring single action in the history of combat aviation: he single-handedly shot down five attacking Japanese bombers and severely damaged a sixth. The authors describe in fascinating detail O'Hare's awe-inspiring feats of aerial combat that won him the Medal of Honor and other awards and explain his key role in developing tactics and night-fighting techniques that helped defeat the Japanese. In addition, they investigate events leading up to O'Hare's disappearance the following year while intercepting torpedo bombers headed for the Enterprise. First published in 1997, this biography utilizes O'Hare family papers and U.S. and Japanese war records and eyewitness interviews. It is essential reading for a true understanding of the development of combat naval aviation and the talents of the universally admired and well-liked Butch O'Hare. Steve Ewing is senior curator at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, and the author of biographies on Jimmie Thach and Jimmy Flatley among other books. John B. Lundstrom is curator of American and military history at the Milwaukee Public Museum and the author of The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway and The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign.

General Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr., USAF, fought in three American wars and became the first African American to attain the rank of four-star general in the United States Armed Forces. He was a talented military leader, an excellent orator and an advocate for equal rights for blacks in the military. James was once one of the most powerful men in the world, and today he is often classed with such great American generals as Patton, MacArthur and Pershing. This biography explores James's life and assesses his place in American military history. From his childhood through his role and service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, the book traces his personal and career development, his influences, and his climb through the military ranks. Photographs of James are included as well as detailed bibliographical information at the end of each chapter.

Using official records, the author traces the origins and early development of strategic bombing, and examines its organs in the operations and staff planning of the First World War. The experiences of the First World War should have been a valuable legacy to those who devised the 'counter offensive' strategy in the years between the war. Unfortunately the lessons learnt were soon forgotten and many of the operational and technical problems which the planners had begun to tackle in 1918 were not even seen to exist by the Air Staff during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Using official records, the author traces the origins and early development of strategic bombing, and examines its organs in the operations and staff planning of the First World War. The experiences of the First World War should have been a valuable legacy to those who devised the 'counter offensive' strategy in the years between the war. Unfortunately the lessons learnt were soon forgotten and many of the operational and technical problems which the planners had begun to tackle in 1918 were not even seen to exist by the Air Staff during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Recent concern about mainland China's intentions towards Taiwan, and more general concern about the risk of instability in the region, has led to growing interest in Taiwan's military strategy. This book brings together a range of experts from the West and from Taiwan itself who examine the key issues connected with Taiwan's air power, which is a key aspect of the China-Taiwan military balance. During the 1990s, Taiwan invested considerable resources in thoroughly re-equipping its air force with modern air defence and strike aircraft equipped with modern missiles, thereby denying China command of the air in any conflict in the short- to medium-term. In the longer-term, air power will remain a crucial influence on the overall balance, as China's efforts to upgrade its own air force's capabilities begin to undermine Taiwan's current advantages.

At the age of twelve, American William R. Dunn decided to become a fighter pilot. In 1939 he joined the Canadian Army and was soon transferred to the Royal Air Force. He was the first pilot in the famous Eagle Squadron of American volunteers to shoot down an enemy aircraft and later became the first American ace of the war. After joining the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943, he saw action in the Normandy invasion and in Patton's sweep across France. Twenty years later he fought again in Vietnam. Dunn keenly conveys the fighter pilot's experience of war -- the tension of combat, the harsh grip of fear, the love of aircraft, the elation of victory, the boisterous comradeship and competition of the pilot brotherhood. Fighter Pilot is both a gripping story and a unique historical document.

On 7th June 1981 a group of F-16 fighter-bombers from the Israeli Air Force bombed the newly completed French-built Iraqi nuclear reactor at Tuwaitha, south-east of Baghdad. The F-16s dived in low and dropped 2000lb iron bombs and 900lb HE bombs on the main reactor building destroying the reactor, yet leaving only one casualty. Up above six F-15 fighters flew top cover while on the border of Iraq CH-53 Air Rescue helicopters were ready to retrieve any pilots who were shot down. The Iraqi air defences around the reactor were formidable with SA-6 (Gainful), SA-2 and SA-3 anti-aircraft missiles and ZSU-57-2 and ZSU-23-4 radar guided anti-aircraft guns and MIG-21 and MIG-23MF fighter interceptors based at a nearby airfield.

These essays cover a wide range of subjects and tell the story of air power's evolution over the past century. The author discusses the golden age of air theory before World War II, examining the ideas of British, American and continental airmen. In the great test of World War II, he covers some of the key roles played by air power in both Europe and the Pacific.

On 7th June 1981 a group of F-16 fighter-bombers from the Israeli Air Force bombed the newly completed French-built Iraqi nuclear reactor at Tuwaitha, south-east of Baghdad. The F-16s dived in low and dropped 2000lb iron bombs and 900lb HE bombs on the main reactor building destroying the reactor, yet leaving only one casualty. Up above six F-15 fighters flew top cover while on the border of Iraq CH-53 Air Rescue helicopters were ready to retrieve any pilots who were shot down. The Iraqi air defences around the reactor were formidable with SA-6 (Gainful), SA-2 and SA-3 anti-aircraft missiles and ZSU-57-2 and ZSU-23-4 radar guided anti-aircraft guns and MIG-21 and MIG-23MF fighter interceptors based at a nearby airfield.

A unique and little-known chapter in World War II naval aviation history concerns the exploits of the scout-observation pilots who flew from the battleships and cruisers of the U.S. Navy. To carry out their missions, they were launched from their ships by catapult. On returning, their float-equipped aircraft landed on the water and the plane and crew were crane-hoisted aboard the vessel. In compiling this work, the author culled from the naval archives many of the ships' action reports and war diaries that detail the accounts of these airmen. In addition he meticulously edited the personal records of 27 veteran airmen who related stories of intense and excruciatingly difficult missions.

In response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on the second of August 1990, a small group of air power advocates in the Pentagon proposed a strategic air campaign - "Operation Desert Storm" designed to drive the Iraqi army from Kuwait by a sustained effort against the major sources of Iraqi national power. John Andreas Olsen provides a coherent and comprehensive examination of the origins, evolution and implementation of this campaign. His findings derive from official military and political documentation, interviews with United States Air Force officers who were closely involved with the planning of the campaign and Iraqis with detailed knowledge and experience of the inner workings of the Iraqi regime.

In response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on the second of August 1990, a small group of air power advocates in the Pentagon proposed a strategic air campaign - "Operation Desert Storm" designed to drive the Iraqi army from Kuwait by a sustained effort against the major sources of Iraqi national power. John Andreas Olsen provides a coherent and comprehensive examination of the origins, evolution and implementation of this campaign. His findings derive from official military and political documentation, interviews with United States Air Force officers who were closely involved with the planning of the campaign and Iraqis with detailed knowledge and experience of the inner workings of the Iraqi regime.

In 1963...there was no way I could have known, sitting in a classroom on that beautiful campus in Ohio, that by raising my hand I would be going to war in Vietnam and that I would see things, hear things and do things that most people cannot imagine. - James Joyce. The author was drawn into the United States Army through ROTC, and went through training to fly helicopters in combat over Vietnam. His experiences are notable because he flew both Huey ""Slicks"" and Huey ""Gunships"": the former on defense as he flew troops into battle, and the latter on offense as he took the battle to the enemy. Through this book, the author relives his experiences flying and fighting, with special attention given to his and other pilots' day-to-day lives - such as the smoke bombing of Disneyland, the nickname given to a United States Army-sponsored compound for prostitution. Some of the pilots Joyce served with survived the war and went on to have careers with commercial airlines, and many were killed.

At the end of the Reagan era, many in the U.S. Air Force began to express their concerns about the health of their institution. They questioned whether the Air Force had lost its sense of direction, its confidence, its values, even its future. For some, these concerns reflected nothing more than the maturation of the most youthful of America's military institutions. For others it was a crisis of spirit that threatened the hard-won independence of the Air Force. Although the diagnoses for this malaise are as numerous as its symptoms, "The Icarus Syndrome" points a finger at the abandonment of air power theory sometime in the late 1950s to early 1960s as the single, taproot cause of the problems. That provocative diagnosis is followed by an equally provocative prescription the Air Force must follow to regain its institutional health. Author Carl H. Builder begins with an overview of this crisis of values within the Air Force, along with a litany of concerns about what seems to have gone wrong within that institution. The history of the U.S. Air Force, along with the role played in it by air power theory, is explored and is used to support Builder's thesis. The remainder of the book is an analysis of what went wrong and when, how these wrongs might be corrected, and the challenges for Air Force leadership in the future. Now available in paperback, "The Icarus Syndrome" will be of great interest to U.S. Air Force professionals, military and aviation historians, and institutional psychologists.

Poland was in ruins after World War I. The fighting front had rolled through some areas more than seven different times, and the result was the almost complete destruction of the roads, railways, bridges, water systems, and power plants. The government was based mainly on civil servants of Polish descent who remained on the job after the fall of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. Even after Poland regained her independence in 1918, the borders were not yet defined and the nation was vulnerable to continued threats from Germany and Russia. This work presents the story of the Kosciuszko Squadron, a small group of American flyers that formed, without the support of the State Department and the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, to defend Poland from the Bolshevik armies from Russia and to prevent the communist revolution in Russia from uniting with the German "Spartakus" movement in the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919-1920. The book covers the events leading up to the formation of the squadron and the first efforts to enlist American military help for Poland in 1918. It explores why that small group of Americans felt compelled to fight for Poland and what they knew about who and what they were fighting for and against, and discusses the people, events, and issues that figured prominently in the war. The Squadron was named, of course, in honor of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who famously came from Poland in 1776 to join the Colonial forces fighting the War of Independence from Britain.

The 20th century saw air power transformed from novelists' fantasy into stark reality. From string and canvas to precision weaponry and stealth, air power has progressed to become not only the weapon of first political choice, but often the only conceivable option. This rapid development has given rise to considerable debate and controversy with those holding entrenched views rarely slow to shout their case. Many myths have grown over the period, ranging from the once much vaunted ability of air power to win wars alone through to its impact as a coercive tool.
This volume examines the theory and practice of air power from its earliest inception. The contributors have been drawn from academia and the military and represent some of the world's leading proponents on the subject. All significant eras on air power employment are examined: some are evidently turning points, while others represent continuous development. Perhaps more importantly, the book highlights the areas that could be considered to be significant, and invites the reader to enter the debate as to whether it constitutes a continuum, a turning point, or indeed a revolution.
The expert analysis in this volume will serve as a guide to past perceptions and will help to equip current analysts for the 21st century.

If the Wright brothers' 1903 flights in Kitty Hawk marked the birth of aviation, World War I can be called its violent adolescence--a brief but bloody era that completely changed the way planes were designed, fabricated, and flown. The war forged an industry that would redefine transportation and warfare for future generations. In First to Fly, lauded historian Charles Bracelen Flood tells the story of the men who were at the forefront of that revolution: the daredevil Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille, who flew in French planes, wore French uniforms, and showed the world an American brand of heroism before the United States entered the Great War. As citizens of a neutral nation from 1914 to early 1917, Americans were prohibited from serving in a foreign army, but many brave young souls soon made their way into European battle zones: as ambulance drivers, nurses, and more dangerously, as soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. It was partly from the ranks of the latter group, and with the sponsorship of an expat American surgeon and a Vanderbilt, that the Lafayette Escadrille was formed in 1916 as the first and only all-American squadron in the French Air Service. Flying rudimentary planes, against one-in-three odds of being killed, these fearless young men gathered reconnaissance and shot down enemy aircraft, participated in the Battle of Verdun and faced off with the Red Baron, dueling across the war-torn skies like modern knights on horseback. Drawing on rarely seen primary sources, Flood chronicles the startling success of that intrepid band, and gives a compelling look at the rise of aviation and a new era of warfare.

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.

This volume deals with the development of Britain's air defences during the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II, and the development of the system during the early period of the war, leading up to the Battle of Britain. Originally classified as "secret," this report was written during the war as an internal Air Ministry history by Cecil James, a historian working for the Air Historical Branch.
The report describes the development of Fighter Command and the air defence network, often called the "Dowding System," and in doing so makes it clear how much of the groundwork for success was laid down in the 1920s by those working at a time when radar had yet to be developed. It was indeed the integration of technological advances such as radar and reasonably efficient radio telephones that allowed the defences to keep pace with the ever-increasing speed and sophistication of bomber aircraft. The result was the world's first truly integrated air defence network, designed to give its commanders botha picture of the enemy's air attacks as they developed and a sophisticated command system to assign and control the defending forces sent up to meet the enemy in the air.

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.

This study considers the complex interplay of factors that shaped and formed the selection, retention, abandonment, and development of the system of flying fields and air bases for the U.S. Army Air Corps and its predecessor organizations over the three decades preceding WWII--a period that has been only cursorily examined from the point of view of ground facilities. No previous works have focused on the question of why air bases are located where they are. Author Jerold E. Brown has consulted an abundance of source materials to create the comprehensive eight-chapter volume: printed hearings, documents, and reports generated by Congress; maps, blueprints, staff studies, the correspondence of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, and several hundred volumes of the Constructing Quartermaster Completion Reports in the National Archives; and unit histories and typescript field histories. Hundreds of articles on the construction and operation of airfields, many written by serving officers, as well as technical manuals, and correspondence of the Office of the Chief of Air Service and Chief of the Air Corps were only part of the data surveyed in preparing the fact-filled text. Eight period photos of airfields from Alaska to Texas, six maps, seven figures, and eight tables complement such chapters as Plans, Parade Grounds, and Politics and Air Bases, Plans, and Preparations. This history of the development of early airfields should help to correct previously held views and assumptions on the subject based on a lack of in-depth research in this area and will be a real treasure trove of information for scholars of Military History.

Human Resource Management in the British Armed Forces continues to grow in importance. A great deal of emphasis has now been placed on people issues and these will grow in importance, particularly for the services, as the full effects of the Human Rights Act 1998 and implications of the Macpherson Report begin to hit home.

This is the second volume of the classified history of air defence in Great Britain. Written while World War II was still being fought, the account has an analysis of the defensive tactics of Fighter Command, and attempts a day-by-day analysis of the action as it took place.