These are pictorial studies of the Allied air offensive that defeated Japanese air forces in the vast Pacific Ocean region, destroyed Japan's navy and its supply lines, and finally devastated the war making potential of the Japanese homeland. The photos come from official archives as well as from the private collections of veterans. The captions reflect painstaking research to supply date, place, and units engaged.

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.

The development of non-rigid, semi-rigid and rigid airships from pre-WWI to WWII.

This new book covers the 388th TFW; a Composite Wing based at Korat RTAFB, Thailand, consisting of fighters, Wild Weasel aircraft, airborne jamming aircraft and AWACS aircraft. The author flew 133 combat missions in Southeast Asia in 1972, and was assigned to the 469th TFS, one of the two F-4E squadrons of the 388th TFW. The book discusses in detail the Wing, the Squadrons and the aircraft they flew: the F-4. F-105G Wild Weasel, A-7D, EB-66, EC-121, and C-130. Also covered are the mission types, as well as operations of the Wing during the Linebacker Campaign over North Vietnam. Narratives of all the 388th MiG kills and aircraft losses during 1972 are included. The book contains over 170 color and black and white photographs taken by the author, as well as theatre maps. A selection of official and unofficial flight suit patches is also included. Don Logan is also the author of Rockwell B-1B: SACs Last Bomber, and Northrops T-38 Talon: A Pictorial History(both titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

"First in the Field" is a relevant title to describe the pioneer force destined to operate a hitherto un-tested concept in modern aerial warfare: the 1st Bomb Division. The initial period of shallow-penetration missions with a severely under-strength force of B-17s, crews and support equipment was followed by growing and finally unsupportable losses. Nevertheless from early 1944 onward it was becoming clear that what was by then the 1st Bomb Division, had held its ground, often against painful tactical and strategic odds, and in doing so had laid the foundations for the final victory of America's bombing campaign against Hitler's regime.

The legendary German fighter is shown here in all new photographs, and on a variety of war fronts. All early to late models are covered.

Covers Hs 126, Bf 110, Me 262, Ju 88, Bf 109, Bv 141, Fw 189 and others.

The 348th Fighter Group was the most successful P-47 Thunderbolt unit in the Pacific. Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Neel Kearby took an aircraft that was generally despised in the southwest Pacific and made it into the terror of the skies over such formidable targets as Wewak on New Guinea, and Cape Gloucester on New Britain. Besides the redoubtable Kearby, the 348th aces included William "Dinghy" Dunham, Bob Rowland, Bill Banks, John Moore, Sam Blair, and George Davis, the Texas ace who would later receive the Medal of Honor in Korea. Ending the war in P-51 Mustangs, the 348th ranged over the Japanese homeland - completing their impressive record and honor, and the drive begun by the illustrious Kearby. John Stanaway is also the author of Attack and Conquer: The 8th Fighter Group in World War II: Possum, Clover & Hades: The 475th Fighter Group in World War II; The Operational Story of Lockheed\s Lucky Star (all three titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

Nimrod Boys is a complementary book to Nimrod Rise and Fall from acclaimed author Tony Blackman. It is a collection of over twenty first-hand accounts of operating the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod - an aircraft which served at the forefront of the Cold War. As the first jet-powered maritime aircraft, it could reach critical points for rescues or for operational requirements in rapid time. Its outstanding navigation and electronics systems also allowed the Nimrod to be a first-class machine in anti-submarine warfare. The book focuses on the Nimrod's UK-based and worldwide operations. With detailed accounts of the Nimrod's role during the Falklands Campaign and in later conflicts such as the First Gulf War to modern-day anti-drug smuggling operations in the Caribbean. There are also descriptions of the Nimrod's achievements in the International Fincastle Competition - where RAF squadrons competed against counterparts from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. With a variety of perspectives on Nimrod crew life, including from a female air electronic operator, readers will find dramatic, engaging and occasionally humorous stories. One flight test observer also reflects on the cancelled Nimrod MR4 project. Nimrod Boys written by Tony Blackman with Joe Kennedy and with a foreword by AVM Andrew Roberts is more than worthy addition to the celebrated Boys series.

Junkers Ju 88 and Its Variants in World War II

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.

On June 6, 1944, paratroops of the legendary 82nd Airborne Division jumped in to Normandy with the River, Ste. Mere Eglise, and other surrounding villages. 82nd commander Major General Matthew Ridgway would later state about their exploits: "thirty-three days of action without relief, without replacements. Every mission accomplished. No ground gained ever relinquished. "This new, large-format book contains many first-person accounts from 82nd veterans, and more than 350 photographs and maps - most published here for the first time - as well as a selection of full-color photographs of World War II era airborne uniforms and equipment.

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.

After the fall of France and the allied retreat from Dunkirk, Hitler proposed the planned invasion of Great Britain. A secret aerial reconnaissance of the United Kingdom (and all of Europe) had been undertaken by the Luftwaffe several years prior to the outbreak of war. The images were used in the detailed planning for the invasion of the United Kingdom. After the collapse of the Third Reich the great race began to salvage the secrets of Hitler's huge intelligence gathering operation. The RAF and Army intelligence scoured the remains of the Reich desperately searching for the library of the "Zentral Archiv Der Fliegerfilm." The Luftwaffe archive was of extreme value both to the West and the newly emerging super power of the Communist Soviet Union, under the dictatorship of Stalin. One power held the secrets of both and competing Soviet and Allied intelligence searched disparately the debris of the Third Reich for aerial library. In June 1945 a British intelligence unit stumble upon 16 tonnes of reconnaissance pictures, dumped in a barn, at "Bad Reichenhall" deep in the forests of Bavaria.The original Luftwaffe reconnaissance archive had been destroyed at the end of the war, and this discovery was an incomplete German Army Intelligence copy. With great secrecy the documents were immediately evacuated back to England and by July 1945 twenty-three plane loads of documents had been removed from the chaos of Germany, to a special RAF intelligence clearing house at Medmenham. The entire archive was methodically recorded, sorted and classified as top secret and disappeared from public view. There were no announcements and very few were aware of this major discovery and the archive was locked away in a secure vault with access classified and restricted to the intelligence services. The records discovered by the allies remained classified till 1984 although parts of this vast archive escaped into the packs and luggage of returning soldiers, as souvenirs. It is from this source that Nigel Clarke slowly acquired images and amassed a collection of over 1000 pictures of the UK taken by the Luftwaffe.

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 autographical account of one young naval officers brief World War II career as a carrier Landing Signal Officer details incidents and anecdotes, from the hilarious to the harrowing, drawn from the authors extemporaneous log, maintained during the advance of the Central Pacific fast carrier force toward the Empire of Japan, 1943-1945. Aircraft numbers are actually drawn from the authors Flight Log Book. Paddles! is an authorative look at aircraft recovery operations aboard the light, fast carrier Belleau Wood, punctuated by excursions into flying exploits outside the nominal scope of LSO duties, and seasoned with mischief and romance ashore. Set in the period of the massive build-up of the carrier, Navy that would destroy the Japanese fleet. Paddles! begins with conversion of a twenty-one year old wet-behind-the-ears ensign from fighter gunnery instructor to senior Landing Signal Officer in just four months, and follows him through twenty-seven months of fast paced air operations in the naval air combat enviornment. Crackling dialogue in the jargon of the time and vivid scene setting combine to submerge the reader in gripping battle action and sensuous romantic encounters-to the heights and depths of a checkered career.

Since the end of the Cold War the United States and other major powers have wielded their air forces against much weaker state and non-state actors. In this age of primacy, air wars have been contests between unequals and characterized by asymmetries of power, interest, and technology. This volume examines ten contemporary wars where air power played a major and at times decisive role. Its chapters explore the evolving use of unmanned aircraft against global terrorist organizations as well as more conventional air conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and against ISIS. Air superiority could be assumed in this unique and brief period where the international system was largely absent great power competition. However, the reliable and unchallenged employment of a spectrum of manned and unmanned technologies permitted in the age of primacy may not prove effective in future conflicts.

X PLANES OF THE THIRD REICH SERIES An Illustrated Series on Germany's Experimental Aircraft of World War II Powered by a single HeS 001A turbojet engine, Woldemer Voigt, who had artfully crafted the Me 262, ran out of time before he could make the 1101's design jell as he struggled to produce the world's first variable wing sweep, ultra light weight interceptor, and armed with Germany's state-of-the art wing-mounted air-to-air guided missiles. Post-war, Bell Aircraft sought to carry on Voigt's planning and resolved to make the complicated mathematics of light weight, variable wing sweep and wing-mounted weapons come together in a single aircraft design. The result was the Bell X-5, and it too, was disappointing. This photographic history of the Me P.1101 by David Myhra features mostly previously unpublished photos, three-view line drawings, and stunningly realistic photos of a 1101 scale model.

The two books, by authors Andrei Alexandrov and Genadi Petrov, illustrated with many previously unpublished photos, depict the blooming period of the Soviet aviation industry, which owed a great deal of its knowledge to technology derived from German designs.

Aerial warfare has dominated war-making for over 100 years, and despite regular announcements of its demise, it shows no sign of becoming obsolete. In this Very Short Introduction Frank Ledwidge offers a sweeping look at the history of aerial warfare, introducing the major battles, crises, and controversies where air power has taken centre stage, and the changes in technology and air power capabilities over time. Highlighting the role played by air power in the First and Second World Wars, he also sheds light on the lesser-known theatres where the roles of air forces have been clearly decisive in conflicts, in Africa, South America, and Asia. Along the way, Ledwidge asks key questions about the roles air power can deliver, and whether it is conceptually different from other forms of combat. Considering whether bombing has ever been truly effective, he discusses whether wars can be won from the air, and concludes by analysing whether there is a future for manned air power, or if it is inevitable that drones will dominate 21st century war in the air. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. Previously published in hardback as Aerial Warfare: The Battle for the Skies.

Number 3 in the Luftwaffe Profile Series describes the design and use of the Heinkel He 219 UHU.

Sherwood recounts the story of American Air Force pilots in the Korean War and the development of a lasting fighter-pilot culture The United States Air Force fought as a truly independent service for the first time during the Korean War. Ruling the skies in many celebrated aerial battles, even against the advanced Soviet MiG-15, American fighter pilots reigned supreme. Yet they also destroyed virtually every major town and city in North Korea, demolished its entire crop irrigation system and killed close to one million civilians. The self-confidence and willingness to take risks which defined the lives of these men became a trademark of the fighter pilot culture, what author John Darrell Sherwood here refers to as the flight suit attitude. In Officers in Flight Suits, John Darrell Sherwood takes a closer look at the flight suit officer's life by drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, novels, unit records, and personal papers as well as interviews with over fifty veterans who served in the Air Force in Korea. Tracing their lives from their training to the flight suit culture they developed, the author demonstrates how their unique lifestyle affected their performance in battle and their attitudes toward others, particularly women, in their off-duty activities.

To Serve My Country, to Serve my Race is the story of the historic 6888th, the first United States Women's Army Corps unit composed of African-American women to serve overseas. While African-American men and white women were invited, if belatedly, to serve their country abroad, African-American women were excluded for overseas duty throughout most of WWII. Under political pressure from legislators like Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the NAACP, the black press, and even President Roosevelt, the U.S. War Department was forced to deploy African-American women to the European theater in 1945. African-American women, having succeeded, through their own activism and political ties, in their quest to shape their own lives, answered the call from all over the country, from every socioeconomic stratum.Stationed in France and England at the end of World War II, the 6888th brought together women like Mary Daniel Williams, a cook in the 6888th who signed up for the Army to escape the slums of Cleveland and to improve her ninth-grade education, and Margaret Barnes Jones, a public relations officer of the 6888th, who grew up in a comfortable household with a politically active mother who encouraged her to challenge the system. Despite the social, political, and economic restrictions imposed upon these African-American women in their own country, they were eager to serve, not only out of patriotism but out of a desire to uplift their race and dispell bigoted preconceptions about their abilities. Elaine Bennett, a First Sergeant in the 6888th, joined because I wanted to prove to myself and maybe to the world that we would give what we had back to the United States as a confirmation that we were full- fledged citizens. Filled with compelling personal testimony based on extensive interviews, To Serve My Country is the first book to document the lives of these courageous pioneers.It reveals how their Army experience affected them for the rest of their lives and how they, in turn, transformed the U.S. military forever.

The author of the bestselling Darwin Spitfires casts a forensic eye over the role that Allied air forces played - or failed to play - in crucial World War II campaigns in New Guinea. This is the story of the early battles of the South West Pacific theatre - the Coral Sea, Kokoda, Milne Bay, Guadalcanal - presented as a single air campaign that began with the Japanese conquest of Rabaul in January 1942. It is a story of both Australian and American airmen who flew and fought in the face of adversity - with incomplete training, inadequate aircraft, and from poorly set up and exposed airfields. And they persisted despite extreme exhaustion, sickness, poor morale and the near certainty of being murdered by their Japanese captors if they went down in enemy territory.

The immediate post-VJ-Day period of RAF history is often consigned to be little more than a footnote in most published accounts. In this first detailed look at the RAF in the Middle and Far East regions in the three years following the end of the war, the RAF's role in stemming the flow of immigrants into Palestine and flying whilst under terrorist attack in Palestine is examined. Further chapters highlight the RAF's roles in Iraq, Cyprus and flying strike missions over Aden, and then look at the RAF's operations over India including some of the first humanitarian airdrops for which the RAF became famous. Attention is then turned to the RAF's return to the Malayan peninsular and how the RAF became embroiled in the beginnings of the Malayan Emergency. Finally, Rapid Rundown: RAF Operations East of Suez 1945-1948 looks at the RAF's involvement beyond the boundaries of the Empire with Spitfires flying over Siam, French Indo-China and Japan, and how it flew combat operations in the Dutch East Indies. The book is copiously illustrated with many unpublished images and is enlivened by many RAF veterans' first-hand and eyewitness accounts.